In line with the chronological ordering of the chapters relating to litigation-track case processing events from contextual and pre-mediation issues (chapters two to five) to those of actual mediations (chapters six and seven), this chapter examines a final facet of the mediation experience for the actors involved: that of mediators and their styles. For those actors whose cases settled due to mediation, the process and all it entailed represented the end of case processing. Even for those cases that did not settle, mediation was likely to have been the last such gathering of all or most actors involved in these disputes prior to trial, bilateral lawyer settlement, or case abandonment.

Actors' perceptions of mediations were intertwined with their views on mediators. Mediators were often perceived as the core of mediations – even synonymous with “mediation” itself. However, there were material differences in views on mediators' performances. This reflected not only subjective perceptions but also objective realities in mediation, as will be seen. What gave certain mediators “the power” to make mediation worthwhile, while others were left to try to make the best of things?