Eva Herzer is a mediator and attorney with 30 years of family law experience. Her practice focuses on mediation of divorces and other partnership dissolutions, including child custody, support and property division issues. She brings a background in psychology to her mediation practice.
Ms. Herzer is committed to helping couples reach fair and enforceable solutions for themselves and their children. While recognizing the often deeply painful emotional realities of her clients, she offers a forward looking and practical approach to reaching balanced and informed decisions. Ms. Herzer knows that most of her clients experience financial stress at the time of divorce. She therefore works hard to guide them through the process in a timely and cost effective way.
Ms. Herzer also mediates, prepares and reviews pre-marital/partnership agreements and assists clients in resolving post-divorce issues, such as modifications of child custody and support orders. If requested to do so by both parties, Ms. Herzer will prepare and file all necessary documents to obtain appropriate judgments and court orders.
WHAT IS MEDIATION?
Mediation is a private co-operative process for reaching fair and fully enforceable agreements. As a mediator, I provide a safe and structured environment for my clients to explore and mutually understand their own interests, as well as those of their children. I offer information and resources and encourage informed decision making. Drawing on my vast experience of
working with couples, I assist in generating options of how to bring together divergent needs and help my clients make balanced and workable decisions. These decisions can be based on your own sense of fairness or on the legal standards a court would use. At the end of the process, I draft a settlement agreement for the parties’' review. If requested, I will submit the agreement and all necessary forms to the judge for approval, without the parties ever having to appear in court. Mediation is thus an excellent alternative to litigation, which by its very definition, is an adversarial process. Litigation tends to polarize people, frequently at a high financial and emotional cost. It can cause great suffering for children and often makes it more difficult for parents to achieve a successful co-parenting relationship.
You negotiate in a confidential setting: Rather than resolve your case in a public court room, in mediation you will make decisions in the privacy of my office, overlooking a tranquil garden.
You may have fewer enforcement problems: When parties reach their own mediated agreements, they tend to carry them out. According to the National Conflict Resolution Center, child support compliance after litigation is around 40 percent compared to 80 percent after mediation.
You can strengthen your co-parenting relationship: The cooperative process of mediation is conducive to maintaining or creating a respectful co-parenting relationship and to reaching child-centered agreements.
WHY CHOOSE MEDIATION?
You control the outcome: Mediation offers the opportunity to reach custom-made decisions, based on what is important and workable for you and your children. I help to generate creative options to resolve often complex issues.
You can save money and time: In mediation you have the opportunity to reach decisions much more quickly than in the court system. Mediation tends to cost much less than hiring two attorneys to represent you. I do not require an up-front payment, as most divorce attorneys do, but ask that you pay for each session as you go.
TESTIMONIALS
"Eva Herzer helped my Ex and me fairly resolve/dissolve a 32-year marriage. Eva is an attorney without ego. She is crisp, succinct and gets results. There are no emotional escalations. She is there to protect both parties' futures. She helped us make informed decisions and, when things either reached a standstill or got a little heated, she found an endless number of ways to address the issues without rancor. It's a little astonishing how the unresolvable was resolved. Divorce is not fun but, with Eva, it doesn't have to be hell either."
Jonathan S.
"Eva Herzer is an excellent and calm mediator."
Anonymous, Berkeley Parents Network
"Eva Herzer is a keenly intelligent and straightforward yet sensitive mediating attorney. She does not do traditional contentious litigation at all, but works solely in mediation. At the same time, she is well schooled in the ins and outs of the law and makes a great adviser, speaking from a position of strength. She has a lot of experience."
Linda, Berkeley Parent’s Network
"We worked with Eva Herzer. She has a [background] in psychology and was formerly a divorce lawyer. We were very pleased with the results of her mediation. She is easy to talk to and humane."
K, Berkeley Parent’s Network
"I knew that getting a divorce was necessary for me, but I was scared about going through the process, and figuring out what to do, whom to see, and where to start. We'd heard terrible divorce stories about how some people have long, nasty, expensive court battles. Both my ex-husband and I feel truly blessed that we found out about Eva Herzer. My ex-husband found her, but we were both convinced she was the right person after our first meeting. She is very knowledgeable about the legal system and the divorce process and, as a result, was able to give us valuable advice. She listened to our hopes and expectations. She tried to make sure that both of us were treated fairly and that we were both informed of our rights. Eva made everything so quick and easy for us. We never had to set foot in a court room. It's obvious that she likes her job and likes helping people. We really appreciate Eva and are grateful for her help."
Kay J.
"We used Eva Herzer on Peralta. She did an excellent job and continues to work with us when we need another situation with the kids worked out."
kl, Berkeley Parent’s Network
"A personal friend of mine worked with Eva Herzer and had a very positive experience. As a psychotherapist, there are frequent requests by colleagues for divorce mediators. Eva Herzer's name shows up on every list. (I can't say anything for/against the others.) Best to you."
Anonymous, Berkeley Parent’s Network
ABOUT EVA HERZER
I went to law school because I wanted to make the law more accessible to people. In 1981, I graduated in the top one percent of my class from Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco. I spent the first years of my legal career working for Legal Aid, serving indigent clients. In 1986, I joined a law firm in Kensington, CA ,where I litigated family law cases. My years as a litigator made me realize how emotionally and financially damaging the adversarial court system can be to separating families. This led to my decision to change my approach to family law. I trained as a mediator, building on my previous study of psychology, and in 1993 opened my Mediation Law Office. Since then I have mediated hundreds of divorces, child custody and support cases. I am very aware of the pain many people experience when they separate and
am committed to making the process as painless and constructive as possible.
I enjoy guiding my clients toward forward-looking, cost-effective, and practical solutions to difficult financial and child related conflicts. I also have a passion for international human rights law and have advocated for the Tibetan people’'s right to self-determination at the United Nations. I am the mother of a 10-year old son and love being a parent. In my free time I enjoy my family, hiking, gardening and traveling.
CONTACT
Eva Herzer
901 Peralta Avenue
Albany, CA 94706
(between Solano &
Marin Avenues)
Ph: 510-526-5146
eva_igc.org
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