Who must attend a Florida commercial mediation, and why does settlement authority matter?

Florida’s rules are strict about who must be in the room. Under Rule 1.720, each party must appear at mediation through a person or representative with full authority to settle the dispute without further consultation, along with their counsel. In a business dispute, this means the party present must be someone who can actually agree to a resolution — not someone who has to call back to headquarters for approval. This full-authority requirement matters enormously: it prevents the common frustration of negotiating all day only to be told the decision-maker is elsewhere, and it is one reason Florida mediations are often productive. If a corporate representative attends without genuine settlement authority, that can be a violation of the rule.