Whether divorcing spouses mediate or hire a lawyer to handle the divorce, they have to do a certain amount of legwork in gathering information and making decisions. In contrast, using the courts is cumbersome and expensive. Mediation is for wimps. They don't have lawyers speaking for them and telling them what to do. As a result, people who mediate often come out of their divorce with greater communication skills and self-confidence.
Mediation makes the divorce take longer.
Unless the spouses have worked everything out ahead of time, having lawyers handle the divorce will almost always take as long or longer than mediating, even if the lawyers are able to settle out of court. There's no place for lawyers in mediation. A spouse pays for only as much consulting time as is needed. All divorce lawyers understand and support mediation. Many adversarial lawyers have little or no experience with the non-adversarial approach used in mediation.