I avoid litigation whenever reasonably possible.  Yes, I'm a lawyer; I <em>can</em> litigate – indeed, when I do litigate I usually win; but most folks, in most situations, get more of what they really want through negotiation and compromise than they can by fighting.

[warning]Litigation is obscenely expensive, horribly unpredictable, and, usually, damned ugly for the participants.[/warning]

Litigation is a fight – a very formal, supposedly polite fight, with lots and lots of rules, but a fight nonetheless.  Fighting generally leads to more fighting; negotiation and compromise lead to more cooperation.  Most of the time, we get more of what we want through cooperation.

Some lawyers really love to litigate, and we need enthusiastic litigators for those big cases where no compromise is possible.  Big companies need litigators when they want to fight over millions of dollars.  I can help most ordinary folks more by helping them find reasonable compromises, not by helping them prolong the fighting.