Mediation
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Over 35 years of professional excellence
Mediation is an efficient and cost-effective way of using a neutral, experienced attorney like Debra Bogaards to help the parties settle their case.
Bay Area Mediation Attorney
Instead of drawn-out litigation, mediation offers parties a means of settling their cases without involving the courts. Here, we will discuss why you should choose Debra Bogaards to mediate your client’s case.
Unparalleled Expertise
Debra Bogaards has the right mix of plaintiff and defense cases in her 37 years as a trial lawyer. As a result of her experience, she can easily understand both sides of each case and has a unique ability to analyze any situation from multiple angles. Both defendants and plaintiffs are often put at ease by her diverse legal knowledge and her respectful, straight-forward approach to mediating their case.
Ms. Bogaards has the ability to talk directly with the claims adjuster on the defense side, having handled tens of thousands of insurance defense cases in her practice. While managing her prior two insurance defense law firms, she met with team managers, claim managers and claims representatives often. She gained their trust and knows what documentation a claim needs to get the highest settlement authority. After 37 jury trials — with only 1 and ½ losses and one bench trial — Ms. Bogaards knows how to calculate the budget for trial expenses and how to evaluate the risks in each case.
As a plaintiff’s lawyer, Ms. Bogaards has handled high-profile media cases and a variety of subject areas. Ms. Bogaards relates well to plaintiffs and understands how their life has been upended by their injuries, wrongful termination, eviction, loss of their parent or business dispute. As a natural storyteller, Ms. Bogaards can communicate well with plaintiffs. Her strength is being down-to-earth, approachable and friendly. Plaintiffs listen when she points to the strengths and weaknesses in their case. Through her directness, honesty and high ethics, she is able to connect with plaintiffs and achieve the highest settlement possible.
Ms. Bogaards has put in three decades of taking depositions and preparing for trials. She knows most of the experts retained by both sides. This subject matter expertise is one reason she is so successful. Read what some of her former clients had to say about her service here.
Tenacious and Persistent
As a mediator, Debra Bogaards works diligently, making pre-mediation phone calls and other preparations for mediation. She will make charts using numbers provided in counsels’ mediation briefs and exhibits. For example, she will have a chart of the plaintiff’s self-employment income by year, before and after the accident. She will draft a medical chronology to assist with discussions in both rooms. She can also understand business evaluations and disputes. She is very good with numbers, having completed an undergraduate degree in accounting. Ms. Bogaards works hard to understand the details of your case and her rigorous preparation pays off.
Ms. Bogaards is also known for her dogged and persistent follow-up. She makes sure the defense counsel sends out the formal Settlement & Release Agreement within a week. She also follows up with the defense counsel as to the ETA of the settlement check.
Best Possible Outcome
Mediation is a process not limited to a half-day or full-day session. However, Ms. Bogaards has settled all of her mediations on the first day, using her mediator’s number in the most difficult of cases. When the parties are polarized on their numbers, Ms. Bogaards will offer — after first getting the consent of all counsel — her mediator’s number. Claims adjusters give Ms. Bogaards a large measure of credibility based on her experience on the defense side (ending in January of 2019) and plaintiff’s counsel and their clients are also happy with her numbers.
Creative and Unique
Ms. Bogaards helps the parties achieve the best possible outcome, sometimes using creativity to fashion a unique settlement.
In one recent case involving a landlord-tenant dispute, the defendant agreed to pay over 6 figures to the plaintiff, as well as small checks for the college fund of three children in the apartment building.
Sometimes, the plaintiff wants and deserves a formal but sincere apology.
It is her ability to be in the moment and sense if there is a creative solution that makes Ms. Bogaards stand out as a mediator.
Training and Experience
For decades, Ms. Bogaards has volunteered in the courts to assist with mandatory settlement conferences before the trial and has mediated numerous cases. She recently was accepted into, and completed, advanced mediation training at the prestigious Harvard Law’s Program on Negotiation in Cambridge, Massachussetts (June 2019).
The Details:
Ms. Bogaards will hold the mediation in her conference room and office, located at 177 Post St., Suite 750 near Union Square in San Francisco. Parking is nearby at the White House garage. The Montgomery Street BART exit is 1½ blocks away. She serves bagels, lox and cream cheese in the morning, and refreshments in the afternoon.
Should you prefer, Ms. Bogaards is also willing to travel to your office.
Her rates are $450.00/hr, $1800 for a half-day and $3400 for a full day, including preparation time.
To read more about her success as a mediator, read some reviews from former clients here.
Personal attention & guidance throughout
the entire legal process.
Nowhere is our passion for justice stronger than when we’re asked to help a client seek recovery for a catastrophic personal injury, or a family recover losses for a loved one’s death caused by someone else’s recklessness or negligence. Our Bay Area personal injury lawyers understand what is needed for a fair settlement.
With over 35 years of experience in the courtroom, and having built a good reputation amongst judges and trial attorneys, Ms. Bogaards has both the tenacity and trial skills to get you a winning verdict at trial or the highest settlement either pre-litigation or after filing suit.
Ms. Bogaards has won almost all of her 38 jury trials and has had great success at mediation. Because Ms. Bogaards has both plaintiff and defense cases, she is uniquely qualified to understand what the insurance company needs to provide you with a fair settlement.
Meet Our Team
Debra F. Bogaards
Trial Attorney
Debra loves her trial work. With over 35 years of successful trial experience, she has devoted tens of thousands of hours to the craft of taking expert depositions, selecting juries, winning trials, and telling her clients’ stories in compelling detail.
Chelsea Lewis
Post-Bar Law Clerk
Chelsea is the newest member of the Bogaards Law team. She is a post-bar law clerk awaiting California bar results. Her responsibilities include drafting motions and trial documents, performing legal research and writing, and summarizing depositions in anticipation of trial and arbitration. She has experience in employment and personal injury litigation.
Testimonials
What our clients are saying about us
We hired Debra Bogaards to represent us after our beloved mother passed away as the result of negligent administration of medications at a reputable, upscale assisted living. Day by day we watched her decline, took her to medical appointments and were told by her doctors that they did not understand why. After her admission to the hospital, we discovered that nursing staff failed to administer prescribed medication; the unused pills were sitting unopened in our mother’s pill basket at the nurse’s station.
This was a painful, unnecessary and premature loss. We did not want other families to experience such an awful decline and death; we felt the assisted living facility had to remediate their practices and be held accountable.
Debra was an outstanding representative for us. We were exhausted, upset and bereft. Debra’s strength, confidence and knowledge comforted us. She helped us let go of the heavy responsibility of addressing the elder abuse because she carried it in her capable hands. Debra is uplifting to work with; she brings positive energy to all of her interactions, including with the opposing side and the mediator. Her strength and optimism reduces stress in naturally stressful situations. She has deep knowledge and experience and expertly researches case specific information. She is well prepared, a strong advocate, and is patient and respectful with her clients throughout the decision-making process.
Our result was very satisfying. The assisted living changed their protocol and instituted ongoing nursing supervision for the administration of medications. In addition, we received financial compensation. The results Debra achieved for us were excellent and helped us gain closure.
We highly recommend Debra as an advocate. She has high integrity, tremendous energy and gets results.
Miriam & Robert Mills
I recently had to mediate a complex and difficult case, where opposing counsel and I agreed to use Debra as the mediator. I found her to be extraordinarily competent, empathetic and efficient in getting my case resolved.
Debra was very thorough, read through and understood all the materials, and was very well prepared. She privately met with the parties and impressed upon them the risks each of them faced by going to trial. As a result, the parties reached a compromise which was fair, and only accomplished because Debra was able to see the case from a good perspective from both the plaintiff and the defendant’s point of view.
REUBEN J. DONIG
A month before trial, Ms. Bogaards successfully mediated a challenging personal injury case and was able to effectively bridge a vast cultural and legal divide, to broker a settlement acceptable to all.
SHELLEY KRAMER
Let's Talk!
Please contact Bogaards Law to discuss your case. We welcome your phone call or email.
Attorney Advertising. This information is designed for general information only. The information presented should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship. Past results and testimonials are not a guarantee, warranty, or prediction of the outcome of your case, and should not be construed as such. Past results cannot guarantee future performance. Any result in a single case is not meant to create an expectation of similar results in future matters because each case involves many different factors, therefore, results will differ on a case-by-case basis.
