Suppose It\u27s Not True: Challenging Mediation Ideology

Across the country, people who file lawsuits are being diverted from adjudication to mediation. Whereas once mediation was seen as the preferred means of resolving family disputes (especially those involving child custody), now it is mandated for a broad range of civil disputes. Whereas once citizens were called upon to volunteer as mediators in community justice centers outside the courts, now mediation is a line of business for lawyers whose customers are sent to them by the courts. Whereas once dispute resolution theorists called on courts to provide a variety of procedural choices for civil disputants, now courts order litigants to mediate and sanction them when they refuse to do s