I would think that one of the most compelling reasons to resolve legal disputes through mediation rather than litigation would be the impulse for self-reliance. That, and civic harmony. Major corporate interests perhaps abuse the method of mediation by categorically requiring it in a tremendous number of cases that ought to enter the public domain in order to forge good precedents. No argument there. But - and I confess boldly that this is guesswork - it strikes me that a very great number of civil law disputes, perhaps a majority, occur between one citizen and anther. It is in situations like these when I would hope that the impulse to rely on civility, judgment and reason would overpower the desire to seek omnipotent decrees from the Judge’s bench. And to mediate a compromise that leaves both citizens satisfied, rather than one victorious and the other devastated (or at least disgruntled).

Boarder