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All too often, lawsuits come to resemble the dilemma of the sorcerer's apprentice. In that tale, a magician's assistant overheard and repeated his master's magic words to set buckets and mops in motion to do the apprentice's job of cleaning the sorcerer's laboratory. However, the apprentice did not know the words to stop the brooms and buckets, and soon the laboratory was not merely cleaned but completely flooded.
Lawsuits sometimes follow a similar path. After months of litigation, a party often finds that, instead of moving the dispute toward a resolution, the lawsuit has driven the two sides farther apart -- and closer to the poor house -- than they were when the case began. While it may have been easy enough to utter the magic words, "I'll sue you for all you're worth!," finding the right formula to stop the lawsuit can be much more difficult. That's where mediation can help.
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