Mediation Services
Ben provides mediation services in all areas, with a special emphasis on real estate, business and employment.
Ben has mediated over 500 cases as a private mediator and as a court-appointed mediator and settlement master for the United States District Court, Northern District of California, and the San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa Superior Courts. In addition to his hands-on experience, Ben has trained as a mediator by participating in the United States District Court’s mediation training program and in private mediation courses. Ben is a former member of the Board of Directors of The Mediation Society, an invitation-only organization comprised of trained and experienced mediators.
“This is the third attempt to mediate this case. And Mr. Hamburg was far and away the best mediator. I dare say we would not have settled today but for his efforts.””
Mediation philosophy
Anyone who has been involved in litigation knows that it is always more time consuming and more emotionally draining than anticipated. Mediation provides litigants with an opportunity to take control of their own destiny, and not leave the resolution of important matters to the whim of a judge or jury.
I utilize my strengths of patience, persistence, credibility, and over 40 years of litigation and mediation experience to help the parties come to a resolution. Being an effective mediator means being respectful, actively listening, and combining a mix of empathy with the reality of litigation so that the parties feel their positions have been considered, and that they have not been forced into a settlement. Settling a matter alone is not the sign of a successful mediation; if one or both of the parties reasonably feels that the system has failed them because they did not get heard, then I feel I have failed as a mediator. Perhaps that is why in the overwhelming majority of my mediations, both parties walk away grateful that they settled, and thanking me for helping to resolve their dispute.
EARLY MEDIATION
Mediation has become such an integral part of the litigation process over the past 25 years that there is little doubt most cases will to go mediation—the only real question is when. Since virtually all cases will end up in mediation (and over 90% of civil cases will settle before trial), why not attempt mediation early on in litigation? In many cases, a good mediator can listen to the conflicting viewpoints, provide perspective, help both sides focus on those issues and factors that no amount of discovery will change, and come up with suggestions for avoiding or, at the very least, streamlining, what would otherwise be expensive and burdensome litigation. A good mediator often can help the parties reach an early settlement before they become entrenched in their positions and before they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and costs.
WORDS OF WISDOM: Success In Mediation, As In Life, Comes From Trying
“To get through the hardest journey, we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.” Chinese proverb
“Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. ” John Wooden
“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser - in fees, and expenses, and waste of time. As a peace-maker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough." - Abraham Lincoln
"Concepts of justice must have hands and feet to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. This is the challenge to every lawyer and judge in America….Trials by the adversarial contest must in time go the way of the ancient trial by battle and blood." Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger
“I was not the least bit optimistic heading into our session, and I credit your efforts in getting us to a point of resolution.” ”
“Well done, Ben, and thank you, you were wonderfully forceful—just what was needed.””