Independent technical practice
Digital evidence for litigation
Technical findings that another expert can examine. Court-qualified examiners document the source, method, observations and limits.
For counsel and litigants
The work we do for this sector
Grouped by matter type. Each link opens a service page with the scope, evidence sources, deliverables and limits.
Litigation
Court-facing digital forensics, testimony and challenge-ready workpapers.
eDiscovery
Full ESI lifecycle: preservation, collection, processing, review and production.
- eDiscovery Collections & Processing
- eDiscovery Services for Law Firms
- Corporate eDiscovery Services
- eDiscovery Cloud Collections
- Mobile & Endpoint eDiscovery Collections
- eDiscovery Legal Hold Support
- eDiscovery Managed Review
- eDiscovery Production Services
- eDiscovery Early Case Intelligence
- eDiscovery Data Discovery & Source Mapping
- eDiscovery Review Platform
- eDiscovery Security & Compliance
- Structured Data eDiscovery
Investigations & internal matters
Employee departures, trade-secret and internal-fraud examinations.
Emerging evidence
Cryptocurrency, deepfake, IoT, wearable and vehicle evidence.
- Cryptocurrency Forensics for Federal, Enforcement and Civil Matters
- Deepfake Detection and Authentication for National Matters
- IoT and Smart Home Forensics for National Matters
- Wearable Device Forensics for National Civil and Criminal Matters
- Vehicle Forensics for National Civil and Criminal Matters
- Drone and UAV Forensics for National Civil and Criminal Matters
- AI Forensics
Exposure
Where cases go wrong
Most disputes now turn on records that were never written to be evidence: chat threads, collaboration histories, mobile backups, cloud audit logs and telemetry from systems that overwrite themselves on a schedule. The window in which those artifacts can be preserved is frequently shorter than the window in which a matter is assessed.
Assess the collection's authority, supported method, source coverage, handling and validation record. An appropriately qualified internal team can perform useful collection work; employment status alone does not establish quality. Undocumented source changes, missing metadata or untested exports create specific questions that the receiving examiner should resolve.
Synthetic media and AI-assisted content introduce another authenticity question. Audio, video, images and documents can now be generated or altered convincingly enough that authenticity must be tested rather than assumed, and the testing has to be documented in a form a court can weigh.
Scoping
Questions the engagement must answer
- What evidence exists, where does it live, and how quickly is it degrading?
- Can the collection be repeated by the other side’s expert and reach the same result?
- Which findings are observed fact, and which are expert interpretation?
- What does the evidence not show, and what would it take to resolve that?
- What form do exhibits need to take for this filing, this court, this deadline?
Services
How we help
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Digital Forensics & Expert Witness
Preservation, forensic imaging, analysis and reports and testimony written to be cross-examined.
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AI & Deepfake Analysis
Authentication of disputed audio, video, images and AI-generated documents entered into the record.
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Biometrics & Identity Sciences
Fingerprint, facial and identity evidence examined and, where required, rebutted by qualified scientists.
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Incident Response & Retainer Programs
Agreed response arrangements and a hotline for a client’s incident.
Context
Regulatory and evidentiary context
- Federal Rule of Evidence 702 / Daubert
- Expert opinion is admitted on the reliability of the method and the qualification of the examiner, so we document method, tooling and limitations in a form that can be examined line by line.
- Authentication
- Digital records have to be shown to be what they are claimed to be, which is a question of acquisition, hashing and chain of custody long before it is a question of content.
- Spoliation and legal hold
- Counsel determines preservation duties and legal hold scope. GDF helps identify sources, document preservation and record gaps; technical handling does not prevent every spoliation dispute.
- Privilege and work product
- Engagements can be structured through outside counsel where the analysis is intended to sit inside privilege.
Context only. Counsel determines which standard governs the matter, and we write to the standard the forum applies.
Related case study
Intellectual Property Case
Court-authorized acquisition of identified source material in a civil-seizure matter, with handling and scope documented.
Intellectual Property
Litigation support
What the technical record can answer
The distinctions and deliverables that matter when digital records enter a dispute.
Forensics is not data recovery, and not eDiscovery
Data recovery restores data after a physical failure. eDiscovery produces what was requested from identified custodians. A forensic examination goes further: slack and unallocated space, hidden and system files, artifacts left by the operating system, and file date codes showing when material was created, modified, accessed or deleted. That is where evidence that no one produced tends to sit.
What counsel gets back
Enterprise matters may require extraction from databases and mail servers and reconstruction of events from the resulting artifacts. The deliverable is a concise written report using accepted methodology, scoped to the questions in the matter, and defensible when the method itself is challenged.
Support for investigators
Investigators working a matter can retain examination capability without building a laboratory: email, images, phone logs, transactions, browsing history and social artifacts, including material deleted or hidden, recovered and documented so it survives the same scrutiny as the rest of the file.
Agree the record and the review boundary
Bring the pleadings or disputed proposition, relevant order, custodian and source list, deadline and known prior handling. Collection volume, encrypted or unavailable sources, third-party access, report detail and testimony affect the scope.
- A preservation inventory identifies the custodian, system owner, retention setting, action taken and source not yet preserved.
- An examination log identifies the acquisition method, version, hash checks, changes and technical exceptions.
- An illustrative opinion workpaper ties a conclusion about a file transfer to the artifact and timestamp, then lists sync, shared-account or missing-log alternatives.
- Counsel directs responsiveness, privilege and the applicable disclosure requirements. The expert's report identifies the technical basis and limits rather than guaranteeing admission.
Current federal practice and evidence rules · Examiner background and qualification planning
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Talk with the team that works your industry
Tell us the matter, sector and deadline. We can discuss relevant experience and the technical scope.
Since 1992 · 24/7 dispatch · Court-tested experts
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Discuss the matter and the next step.
Call to discuss timing, scope and the safest way to share information. Do not send evidence or credentials by email.
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