You need to consider the future relationship of the parties. This is where mediation can be a big help. In situations where the parties wish to preserve or improve their relationships, mediation is more likely to create a forum for frank exchange leading to a better working association, rather than either ignoring issues or using more formal approaches. There are also advantages of Family Mediation for their lawyers. Lawyers will have clients who are generally more satisfied by the experience of crafting their own resolution.
Satisfied clients are more appreciative of the lawyer's services and spread the word.
This causes more clients to seek out that lawyer for similarly satisfactory results. Lawyers representing clients in mediation are more likely to be paid their full fee. On the other hand, the lawyers who go the traditional route of settlement meetings and litigation often do not bill their full fee, or they often do not collect all the money that they do bill their clients. Thus, while lawyers may bill fewer gross dollars to an individual client, they collect a higher percentage of what is billed and get more business as a result of satisfied clients. This is true even where all prior attempts at settlement have failed, where the parties were pessimistic about the prospects of settlement, and where the parties have spent substantial amounts of time and money preparing for trial.