If You Build It, Will They Come? An Empirical Study of the Voluntary Use of Mediation and Its Implications

A generation ago, American litigants did not often go to mediation voluntarily. Advocates of the process predicted, however, that as lawyers and parties became more familiar with mediation, they would opt to use it more often. But, is this true? Virtually no data exists about how often litigants voluntarily choose to mediate legal disputes, whether use varies in different kinds of cases, and what motivates litigants' decisions whether to mediate or not.

This Article presents data about each of these issues and analyzes its meaning.