In the context of a divorce, mediation is a good thing. It offers folks a real opportunity to settle their divorce without the acrimony or expense of a trial.
In this posting on the HuffPost Divorce blog, Christina Pesoli offers some reasons to feel good about mediation:
It’s waaaay more civilized than trial.
No one can force you to agree to anything.
You can ask for whatever you want (within reason).
It is cheaper and faster in the long run.
If you don’t settle, you didn’t waste your time—nor are you for sure going to trial. Even in a mediation that doesn’t result in a settlement agreement, progress is typically made on at least some issues. Often the parties continue to build on that progress after mediation. Many times the parties will settle after mediation but before trial. In other words, the work that happens in mediation has value even if it doesn’t bear fruit that same day.