On September 13, 2015, I received an email that said in pertinent part the following:
"The big stress items in life are often listed as marriage, divorce, birth, death, and moving. Litigation should be included. Wow. You can 'know' it, but until you live it you can never really 'know' it."
Truer words have never been spoken, as they say.
Litigation is such a costly (financially and otherwise) and destructive way of resolving disputes.
Moreover, it's ALL about the blame-game, which runs counter to the acceptance of personal responsibility for contributions made to the situation and typically does NOTHING to solve the problem that led to the dispute. This really shouldn't be a surprise because finger pointing doesn't solve anything.
Meanwhile, it is the "default" dispute resolution process in the good old USA.
If our government valued harmony and interpersonal and familial relationships, it would change that default process, as has been done in other countries.
The thing about a "default" is that you must "opt out" of whatever the "default" may be.
When the "default" involves a dispute resolved process, all disputants must "opt out," which is asking a lot of people because fear and anger takes a hold on them.
No worries - destructive lawyers are making a fortune at everyone else's expense and that of our society as a whole.
By the way, having a retired judge "mediate" a legal action by telling the parties what they BELIEVE would happen in court is NOT mediation. Moreover, most lawyers don't even do that until after they litigated the hell out of the case.