Career jurist brings honest assessments, close attention to every party, and unyielding patience on the path to resolution.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Signature Resolution is proud to announce that Hon. Carol Overton (Ret.) has joined our panel of neutrals, where she will mediate and arbitrate a broad range of civil disputes, including employment, probate, contracts, torts, personal injury and wrongful death, business litigation, real property and real estate (including boundary disputes, easements, construction defects, and commercial landlord-tenant matters), family law, elder abuse, and cases involving equitable and injunctive remedies, among others. Judge Overton comes to the table with the legal depth and management skills necessary to successfully resolve complex litigation and multi-party actions, built over a judicial career on the Santa Clara County Superior Court that made settlement its central work. She tells parties honestly where their case stands and what a jury is likely to make of it, and she believes every case deserves a meaningful effort to resolve it.
In session, Judge Overton is direct without being heavy-handed. She names where a position is exposed and what continued litigation is likely to cost, offering that assessment in service of the parties rather than as leverage over them. She works alongside counsel rather than around them, trusts the attorneys who built a case to help resolve it, and pays close attention to the party who still has something to say. When a first conversation ends without agreement, she keeps the door open and brings parties back rather than treating an early impasse as the end of the matter.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Judge Overton to the Santa Clara County Superior Court in 2005. She presided over misdemeanor and drug court calendars before serving as supervising judge of the Domestic Violence Department, then moved to the Civil Trials Department for the balance of her tenure. Beginning in 2020, she took on a formally designated settlement and ADR assignment spanning judicial ADR, mandatory and voluntary settlement conferences, and informal discovery conferences, later expanded to include unlawful detainer, civil harassment, and elder abuse matters.
Before the bench, Judge Overton spent nearly 18 years in the litigation section of the San Jose City Attorney's Office (CAO), focusing on employment, tort defense, and municipal law, and building on earlier criminal trial practice at the beginning of my legal career. In her final years at the CAO, she focused on filing and litigating unfair business practices and public nuisance abatement actions brought on behalf of the City, including multiple statutory gang, drug, and red-light abatements; a comprehensive public nuisance action to remediate extensive substandard housing conditions at residential rental fourplexes covering an entire four-block San Jose neighborhood; and an unfair business practices action to enjoin environmental health violations at a San Jose industrial facility.
"Judge Overton has a real gift for telling people hard truths in a way that moves them toward agreement rather than away from it." said Dario Higuchi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Signature Resolution. "We could not be more pleased to welcome her to our panel."
Judge Overton was named John D. Foley Judge of the Year by the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers Association in 2024 and was honored at the Santa Clara County Bar Association Women's Lawyers Committee Annual Women Judges Reception in 2013.
Judge Overton earned her Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles.
To learn more about Hon. Carol Overton (Ret.), please visit: LINK
About Signature Resolution
Founded in 2017 in the heart of Los Angeles, Signature Resolution comprises a panel of distinguished neutrals hailing from diverse backgrounds, including respected judges and trial attorneys specializing in virtually every civil practice area. The founding partners inaugurated the organization with a vision of providing the highest level of service and convenience for attorneys and their clients. Signature Resolution's panelists offer unrivaled expertise and commitment to resolve even the most challenging legal matters. In addition to the Los Angeles location, Signature Resolution also has offices across California. For more information about the firm's mediation, arbitration, and other dispute resolution services, visit signatureresolution.com.
Media Contact
Katelyn Cummings, Signature Resolution, 1 6506447867, [email protected], Signature Resolution
SOURCE Signature Resolution
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