Barney Connaughton is a family lawyer and mediator who has been practicing Family Law in Chula Vista and San Diego, California, since 1993. His practice includes representing clients in contested traditional divorce cases, representation in collaborative cases, and serving as a Mediator in mediated cases. Barney Connaughton is also serving as Vice President of the San Diego Family Law Council for Children, a group dedicated to educating and providing resources for the protection of children involved in divorce.He is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association, Family Law Section and serves as a Family Law Settlement Judge for the South Bay branch of the San Diego Superior Court. His practice focuses on providing clients with options so they can divorce in a healthy way. Whether it be by mediation, collaboration or taking a problem solving approach with contested cases, he seeks to balance advocating for the client with sensibly resolving disputes. Working for A Healthy Divorce Our office is committed to working for a healthy divorce by diffusing conflict in contested cases, advocating zealously when necessary, providing creative options to the traditional divorce, promoting awareness and consideration of the needs of the children, emphasizing effective communication so clients can make informed decisions, maintaining attention and responsiveness to client's needs and securing appropriate referrals to needed resources. Diffusing Conflict Our focus is on solving the issues involved in your divorce. We place our value much more on facilitating a constructive resolution of contentious issues in your case then on litigating those issues before a Judge. We focus on moving past finger pointing and blaming, to finding creative solutions so that the couple can move on with their lives. Advocating Your Interests While we seek to diffuse and resolve the conflict in your case, we will vigorously defend your rights, and advocate your interests should your former spouse not share your desire for a healthy divorce process. Mr. Connaughton has experience litigating family law matters in Chula Vista and San Diego, California since 1993. Creative Options to the Traditional Divorce Our office provides healthy divorce alternatives including mediation and Collaborative Divorce to involve the couple in working to constructively resolve their own divorce. Whether we are working as a neutral mediator guiding the couple to fashion their own divorce solutions by Mediation or acting as an attorney for one of the spouses in a Collaborative Divorce we invite using a process focused on creatively resolving dispute outside the Courthouse. Meeting the Needs of the Children Part of a healthy divorce is assuring that the needs of the children are being met, and that the children are not being inappropriately placed in the middle of the dispute. We are committed to helping clients maintain a focus on the needs of the children throughout the process and see diffusing conflict and selecting healthy divorce alternatives as a means of accomplishing this end. Informed Decisions Our goal is to help client's make informed decisions every step of the way. In divorce mediation this means encouraging the couple to gather all necessary information to make educated decisions and steering the couple to appropriate resources when needed. As your divorce mediator, we recognize the importance of taking the time to explain issues in understandable terms, and making ourselves available to answer questions as they come up.Responding to Your Needs We are here to meet your needs as they arise. We have a policy of promptly returning telephone calls, and will seek immediate solutions to problems as they come up. By using mediation and collaborative alternatives, problems can be addressed without long delays waiting for court availability.