Going to court is an option. For some, regrettably, it may be the only choice. It is best avoided. In children matters parents can tailor their own arrangements much better than a court is ever likely to do.
If it is a financial matter a cooperative working together approach will be a lot cheaper and quicker.
The big downside of going to court is that the adversarial approach does nothing for personal relationships, which will necessarily be ongoing for parents.
Speed-or lack of it. The court process is usually measured in months, mediation in days.
Expense-going to court can be very expensive.
Outcome-the order of court makes may not suit either party, and can be a bit of a lottery.
Depth-a court has very little time to spend on each case.
Court order-if the party’s mediation results in an agreement it can be turned into a court order. That would be unusual and probably unnecessarily cumbersome in a children matter. In a financial matter it may be essential to implement the agreed outcome, such as pension sharing.