Have to agree Invest that having 3 judges might make more sense especially if they banter the arguments between themselves where one judge might gain some insight from some point made by another.
Now I am to add something that will get me laughed out of the room I am sure:
In the situation like we have with only one judge, how might it be if the judge issues his/her initial/preliminary judgement and then the litigants, after reading the decision, have an opportunity to either agree with the judge or point out the errors in the judge’s decision? I know pretty stupid idea, but in our case we would have been able to point out to the judge at a minimum the factual errors of her judgement.