Usually, the parties agree that they will not use the mediation services of the court and will obtain a private mediation person or group that has such a mediator.
Many of the mediators that work for the court system have seen many cases, and because they are human, they may make mistakes. That is not to say a private mediator can't also make a mistake. The mediator's job is to do the evaluation and then make a "recommendation" to the court. The recommendation is NOT an order. The court is NOT required to "adopt" the mediation, and the parties are NOT required to accept the mediation recommendation themselves.
Thus, the recommendation, if not accepted by at least one of the parties, can result in a trial.
In about 75% of cases (not an exact percentage) judges will tend to adopt the recommendation of the mediator.
But as stated, if a party objects to that recommendation being adopted, a trial can be held, OR it's possible the parties can work out something different. Some recommendations may have clauses which give review dates in the future, others may not. If in your jurisdiction, you know you do not want the court mediator(s), then you must tell the court that you wish to have private mediator services, and should discuss that in advance with the other party.
In high conflict cases, mediation may be the tip of the iceberg...extremely high conflict cases are not usually solved by using a mediator no matter what recommendation is given, the parties will continue to not get along and will have issues.
It is this attorney's belief that in some high conflict cases where neither party is represented, the judges simply assume that minor's counsel can fix the problem. This is not necessarily true for all cases, especially when there has been one sided action (criminal, quasi-criminal, mental illness, imprisonment/other facts which cause one party not to work, and etc.) In these cases, it can be that no amount of minor's counsel will be solving anything.