Why did family mediation fail for separating and divorcing couples?

Family mediation was meant to be the cheaper way through a separation or divorce: the couple settle the arrangements with a mediator instead of through two sets of lawyers paid by legal aid. Gwyn and his co-authors studied a pilot quasi-market for mediation among clients eligible for legal aid, and monitored the publicly funded service for the Legal Services Commission. Mediation carried high fixed costs, and its take-up was too low to pay for them.