Confidentiality. 
Mediation occurs “behind closed doors” in a private setting whereas courtrooms are accessed by the public who are privy to your personal matters.

Cost effective. 
Typically the parties retain one mediator whose focus is on assisting the parties in arriving at mutually agreeable fair & reasonable decisions. Litigation typically involves two lawyers and can result in expensive drawn out court-based proceedings.

Time efficient. 
Court-based procedures can take years to reach a final resolution. Mediations’ focus is on fully informing the parties and encouraging settlement and thus resolution can be achieved in a very short time-frame.

Decision making capacity. 
In mediation the decision making ability remains solely in the hands of the parties. In court-based processors decisions can be imposed upon the parties by a judge. 

Relational maintenance. 
It is important forseparating parties to retain a good working relationship between each other - especially when continuing to parent children. Mediation assists in this by having the parties work together to negotiate their decision-making and parenting arrangements. 

Flexibility. 
Often after separate initial consultations, the parties meet together with the mediator for joint meeting/s. However if the parties prefer, the mediator will continue to meet with each party separately in order to bring matters to resolution.