After completing the introductory stage of the session, mediators typically ask each disputant in turn to make an opening statement or tell their “story” (Boulle et al. 2008; Frenkel and Stark 2012). The first storyteller in the mediation hearing works to present his or her own position favorably, while showing how the opposing disputant was wrong (Cobb and Rifkin 1991a; see also Stokoe and Hepburn 2005).