South Florida coverage
Digital Forensics in Miami
Forensic preservation, examination, expert reporting, and cybersecurity testing for matters seated in Miami and across South Florida. Local intake with 24/7 dispatch through Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties.
The engagement
How GDF works in Miami
South Florida matters touch a mix that is unusual for a single market: an international financial cluster along Brickell Avenue and Downtown, a container and cruise port that moves cargo and passengers between North America and Latin America, hospitality and entertainment on the beach and along the waterfront, a healthcare corridor anchored by large hospital systems, and a growing venture and fintech scene that pulled operators and capital south during and after 2020. Records that matter to a Miami dispute rarely sit in one place.
The Miami intake at (786) 219-1210 is the primary contact for South Florida work. Examiners are dispatched into Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and, when the matter calls for it, Monroe County. Working meetings run at counsel offices in Brickell, Downtown, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, at the client site, or over video for custodians outside the region.
The engagement model is independent and technical. Forensic records, expert reports, and, where the matter reaches it, deposition or trial testimony are produced against a documented chain of custody. Admissibility is decided by the court. What GDF is retained to do is make the underlying method defensible: validated tooling, reproducible notes, and a clean separation between observed facts and expert opinion.
Local venues and regulators
Where Miami matters actually land
Southern District of Florida
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida holds court at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Courthouse and the C. Clyde Atkins Courthouse in Downtown Miami, plus divisional courthouses in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, and Key West. Preservation, collection, processing, and expert-report support are scaled to the schedule the assigned judge or magistrate sets. eDiscovery workflows are designed against FRCP Rule 26(f) discussion requirements and Rule 34 production form obligations, with load files (Concordance DAT, Relativity RDX, EDRM XML) that match what the receiving side actually uses.
Eleventh Judicial Circuit (Miami-Dade)
Miami-Dade County civil, complex business, and probate matters seated at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center, and the Dade County Courthouse. The Complex Business Litigation Section carries case management orders that specify ESI protocols, de-duplication, and production format. Reports and expert testimony are prepared to the venue and to the case management schedule.
Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe circuits
Coverage extends to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit (Broward, Fort Lauderdale), the Fifteenth (Palm Beach), and the Sixteenth (Monroe, the Keys). Common technical work: custodian mobile devices, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenants, Slack and Teams workspaces, and, in Palm Beach and Broward high-net-worth matters, private-wealth records that sit across custody, family office, and personal cloud services.
Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA)
Section 501.171 of the Florida Statutes obligates a covered entity to provide notice of a breach of security to affected Florida residents and, at scale, to the Florida Department of Legal Affairs, within 30 days after determination of the breach. Incident response work is scoped so the technical timeline, the affected-data determination, and the remediation record are usable inputs to counsel's reportability analysis. GDF does not advise on whether an event is reportable.
Florida Digital Bill of Rights
The Florida Digital Bill of Rights (Chapter 501, Part V) carries controller and processor obligations for covered businesses that meet the statute's thresholds. Where a consumer request, an assessment, or a regulator inquiry from the Florida Department of Legal Affairs implicates a technical record, GDF supplies the underlying evidence: processing inventories, retention configuration, deletion workflow logs, and audit records.
Florida Cybersecurity Act (SB 366) and public sector
State agencies and their contractors carry obligations under the Florida Cybersecurity Act. Technical evidence supporting risk assessments, incident reporting to the Florida Digital Service and the Cybercrime Office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and post-incident remediation is prepared so agency counsel and the client's compliance team can respond on schedule.
Port of Miami, cruise, and cross-border logistics
PortMiami moves both containerized cargo and cruise passengers on a schedule that leaves little room to pause operations for evidence work. Preservation of terminal operating systems, yard-management platforms, booking and reservation systems, and vessel-side records is scoped around operations. Cross-border evidence, including custodian records that sit in Latin American subsidiaries or vendors, is handled with the mutual-legal-assistance context in mind and coordinated with client counsel.
Coverage detail
Areas covered
Every Miami matter is dispatched from the same Miami intake. The area pages describe the specific venues, custodian profiles and response patterns across South Florida.
Miami focus pages
Local practice detail
The focus pages below cover regulator, venue and incident work that lands most often on Miami matters.
Miami focus pages
Local practice detail
The focus page below covers the testimony work that lands most often on Miami matters.
Frequently asked
Common questions on Miami matters
Do you have a Miami office?
Yes. The Miami intake at (786) 219-1210 is the primary contact for South Florida matters. Examiners are dispatched into Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties on a 24/7 basis for active incidents. Working meetings are held at counsel offices, at the client site, or by video.
Which South Florida courts do you work in?
Reports and expert testimony have been prepared for matters in the Southern District of Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach divisions), the Eleventh Judicial Circuit (Miami-Dade), the Seventeenth (Broward), the Fifteenth (Palm Beach), and, when matters call for it, the Sixteenth (Monroe). Reports are also prepared for arbitration under AAA and JAMS, and for regulator-facing matters at the Florida Office of Financial Regulation and the Florida Department of Legal Affairs.
How fast can you respond to a Miami breach?
For active incidents in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach, an on-site response is typically dispatched within a few hours of the initial call. Remote preservation of cloud tenants and endpoint telemetry starts on the call itself so that short-retention sources, for example mailbox audit records and EDR process telemetry, are captured before they age out.
Do you support FIPA incident timelines?
Yes. GDF develops the underlying technical record: the incident chronology, the systems and data involved, the containment and remediation steps, and the limits of what the available logs can establish. Counsel decides whether notification obligations under section 501.171 apply and what the notice will say.
Do you handle matters that span Latin America?
Yes. Miami matters routinely involve records that sit with affiliated entities and vendors in Latin America. GDF coordinates preservation and collection with local counsel under the client's protocol. Where formal cross-border process is needed, the technical scope and evidence handling are designed against the mechanism counsel selects.
Do you take private-party matters in South Florida?
Corporate matters (internal review, employment disputes, trade-secret protection, incident response, regulator-facing work, transactional diligence) are the majority. Private-party work is limited to matters where the technical questions and evidence sources are the same, including high-net-worth probate and estate matters and civil disputes over data or intellectual property. GDF does not take divorce or custody matters.
Talk with an examiner
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.
24/7 hotline: 1-800-868-8189