No doubt millions of people and businesses have benefited from simpler, less stressful modes of dispute resolution. Moreover, ADR is primed for much greater growth, as witnessed by the breathtaking expansion of court-related programs, the rush of lawyers and nonlawyers alike to mediation training seminars, and the pledge of thousands of businesses and large law firms to consider ADR options. But the child born of necessity is still, at best, teetering between adolescence and adulthood. For all of its potential to reshape the ways problems are solved, it still shows a dark side-coercion, conflicts, competency issues and commercialism -that leaves even many supporters privately concerned about the future course it will take