Society benefits from the formal processing of disputes that otherwise might erupt in public violence or private vengeance. State authority is reinforced by the deference afforded to official symbols of law and order. The idea of a society without courts and lawyers inspires trepidation. But law and litigation have their darker side. It is more likely to sustain domination than to equalize power.
Litigation expresses a chilling, Hobbesian vision of human nature.
It accentuates hostility, not trust. Selfishness supplants generosity. Truth is shaded by dissembling. Once an adversarial framework is in place, it supports competitive aggression to the exclusion of reciprocity and empathy. Litigation can be as bizarre as Alice's Wonderland.