Founding Mediator, T. Scott Belden, JD, MBA

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Scott Belden started Resolution Services after almost thirty years as an attorney.  Scott’s practice over the years has involved almost every aspect of business, commercial, and employment transactions, litigation, and trials to judgment.  He served as lead counsel in hundreds of litigated cases and transactions.  Early in his practice, Scott obtained his Master of Business Administration so that he could better understand his clients’ business needs and used his experience and education to successfully run two medium sized law firms.  During this period, he also has served as the Staff Judge Advocate for the California State Guard, advising senior leaders on legal issues affecting the State Guard and its soldiers and airmen. Additionally, he served as a Professor of Law at the California Pacific School of Law and Monterey School of Law on the subjects of Advanced Legal Research, Constitutional Law, Federal Civil Procedure, Remedies, and Employment Law.

During his practice, Scott has participated in over 200 mediations, settlement conferences, and other voluntary dispute resolution sessions, and on a number of occasions has served as a mediator in complex business and commercial cases.  In the vast majority of these cases, Scott was able to assist the parties and his clients in resolving their disputes on fair and just terms. 

Scott started Resolution Services after seeing what worked and did not work in his mediation experiences.  Using his broad range of legal experience, Scott’s goal is to help you see the benefits of a negotiated resolution of your disputes and avoid the delay, cost, distraction of litigating those disputes.  

A special area of focus for Scott over the last 13 years, is employment law.  During this time, Scott has litigated hundreds of employment matters and participated in over 100 employment related mediations and settlement conferences.  These experiences have included both individual discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination cases, but also a wide array of wage and hour class and PAGA actions.   He  knows how intense, costly, and distracting those matters are for the participants.  Using his extensive employment experience, Scott’s goal in employment cases is providing Early Neutral Evaluation, Mediation, Conciliation, and Facilitation services at the appropriate juncture in an employment dispute and to use his expertise to helping the parties resolve these costly disputes at the best time for the parties. 

Scott’s expertise is especially useful in PAGA Early Neutral Evaluations.  This early evaluation opportunity was enacted into law in 2024 to provide employees and employers the ability to obtain an early evaluation of the merits of a PAGA lawsuit before significant costs are incurred by either side.  The more cost is incurred, the more likely the parties will be entrenched in their positions, leading only to more cost, delay, and distraction.  With an expertise in wage and hour matters, including class and PAGA actions in state and federal courts, Scott can provide an objective, neutral evaluation of the issues involved in the dispute before significant cost is incurred.