“Can I attend the mediation without a lawyer? What happens if the other side has one and I don’t?”
Yes, you can attend a mediation without a lawyer. But without their confidential advice you may find it very difficult to know what offers to make, accept or reject. It is not my role to advise you, nor to protect you from accepting offers that are not in your interests. You need not be concerned that the other side’s lawyer will cross-examine you as would happen in litigation at a trial because you will be in different rooms. But I will be asked to bring questions from that lawyer to you for answers. Without your own lawyer attending with you, you will have no one to help you decide how to answer.
Without your own lawyer you will also be more vulnerable to being exploited during the bargaining phase of the meeting (the other side’s lawyer has a duty to do this to serve their client’s interests). In some cases, participants give their lawyers authority to negotiate and to sign a settlement agreement on their behalf. This will be impossible if you have not brought one with you.
I cannot fill the empty space that your lawyer should occupy. I am always willing to assist in giving advice about procedure (I often refer people to the Briefing and Guidance Note in the Documents page of my website for this purpose). But I am forbidden from advising on law, evidence or what offers to make or accept. Only your lawyer can do that.