Hon. Ben Davidian (ret.)

Hon. Ben Davidian (Ret.) is a full-time JAMS neutral, with decades of experience as an attorney, government official and judge in the Sacramento County Superior Court. Judge Davidian was appointed to the Superior Court in 2009 and served over 12 years, including his most recent assignment of almost seven years as the supervising civil settlement conference judge. His work on the court clearly demonstrated his integrity, fairness and professionalism.

While on the bench, Judge Davidian personally presided over more than 150 jury trials, and as supervising judge of the court’s civil settlement center, he personally performed thousands of voluntary and mandatory settlement conferences. He also managed thousands more mandatory settlement conferences performed by judges pro tem. Throughout his time on the bench, Judge Davidian was known for his tenacious efforts to resolve cases. His conscientious, personable, diligent and evenhanded administration of justice allowed for creative and successful settlements. He is known for his personal touch, use of humor when appropriate and his concern for all litigators and litigants in his efforts to effectuate a settlement. In his more than 40 years in the legal profession, Judge Davidian has amassed broad experience in a wide variety of practice areas, including business/commercial, construction defect, employment, government/public agency, health care, insurance, personal injury, professional liability, elder abuse, landlord/tenant, PAGA cases and real property/real estate matters.

When COVID-19 resulted in the temporary closure of the courts, Judge Davidian developed a voluntary settlement conference program using videoconferencing, primarily utilizing the Zoom platform. He has conducted almost 200 voluntary and mandatory settlement conferences using virtual or videoconferencing techniques.

Judge Davidian was honored to be named Judge of the Year by the Capitol City Trial Lawyers Association in 2017 and Judge of the Year by the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) in 2018.

Judge Davidian has worked in both private law practice and government service. As a practitioner, Judge Davidian specialized his practice in the areas of political, election and campaign law; professional negligence; administrative law; government law; and business litigation.

Judge Davidian is a veteran of the United States Air Force, where he served as a flight-rated navigator, attaining the rank of captain. His service included a combat tour in Southeast Asia.

Ho. Ben Davidian, (Ret.)
JAMS
1415 l Street, Suite 700
Sacramento, CA 95814