In a Scottish family action, recovered material earns its place only where the device was lawfully open to us and the handling was recorded as it went along. We act for family solicitors around Union Street and the clients behind them, on devices where the right to examine is beyond argument. That right is confirmed in writing before any image is taken.
◇ Footing first. Bench time after. The free diagnostic opens the job, a written scope follows it, and forensic fees clear ahead of any examination. No fix, no fee all jobs except electronic and mechanical failures, chip level work, DVR and Forensic jobs. Full pricing is on the data recovery cost page.
It has to be your device, genuinely shared property, or a device named by a solicitor or by the court. No fourth route exists and we will not invent one for you.
Every family instruction opens on one question. On what basis is this device open to us? Three answers stand up. It belongs to you. It is genuinely joint property, the kitchen desktop or a backup drive the two of you paid for. Or the examination stands directed, whether by a solicitor or else by the court. Nothing beyond those three answers will do. Guessing a spouse's passcode, or opening mail that is theirs alone, walks straight into the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which applies right across the UK. Material gathered like that tends to injure whoever gathered it. Confirming the footing costs a day or two. Getting it wrong costs the action.
Deletion is rarely the end of anything. Computers, shared drives and the handset backups parked on them return conversations, photographs with their capture dates intact, letters and spreadsheets, plus a sign-in and browsing record spanning the days at issue. Recovered items keep their clocks, so a sequence can be built. That carries extra weight in Scotland. Financial provision on divorce runs on the Family Law (Scotland) Act 1985, matrimonial property is valued as at the relevant date, and evidence that carries a date is therefore worth a great deal more than evidence that does not.
Instructions come through solicitors in two forms. One party alone, or both together. On a joint footing the named device is imaged a single time, the scope stays precisely where the parties or the court put it, and the duty is owed to the court and not to whoever settles the account. In Scotland a skilled witness owes that duty whichever side does the instructing. Findings are drafted so a sheriff can take them straight off the page, and the thin parts of the evidence are given the same room as the strong ones.
Suppose a device you are entitled to open might matter. Then leaving it strictly alone is the single most useful contribution available. Unlock it and you write. Install a recovery app off the store and you write a great deal more. Hand it to a relative who fancies a try and you write most of all. Each write shifts a date that somebody may need to rely on. Shut it down, keep it out of reach, note down where it has been, then ring us, or ask the solicitor to. From that call onward, handling goes on the record.
How images get taken, verified and stored belongs to the forensic recovery hub. For dating a deletion, see deleted-file forensics. Keeping material safe afterwards is legal hold and chain of custody. Numbers sit on the prices page.
Lifted only from devices in your name, from genuinely shared property, or from hardware you are directed to produce.
Text and chat threads returned after deletion, held in sequence.
Removed images that still carry a readable capture date.
Erased correspondence, statements and bookkeeping documents.
Sign-in and browsing records right through the hours in question.
Documents bearing on figures already put before the court.
Created, modified and deleted stamps, anchoring everything to a date.
Each instruction opens on the free diagnostic. Allow 2 working days from the date a device reaches this bench. Forensic casework sits outside no fix, no fee. The full forensic investigation with report is £800 + VAT, payable 100% upfront. The less expensive Forensic binary image and deleted-file extraction service, without the report, is £400 + VAT. Any Forensic work required will be payable upfront. You will find both figures repeated on the prices page, and we take nothing until a scope is agreed in writing.
Family instructions run on devices of your own, on genuinely joint property, or on a direction out of a solicitor or the court. Three doors in, and we have never found a fourth. Kit the business itself owns. A written instruction out of a solicitor, an insurer or from the court. Or else a device that genuinely belongs to the client, which in a matrimonial matter takes in one held between the two of them. Nothing gets hacked at this bench. Live traffic is never intercepted. Where the instructing client holds no right to look inside a device, we hold none either.
Entitlement is settled on the phone before a parcel gets made up. Speak to us on 0800 689 0668, or ask your solicitor to make the call. Agreed devices then travel to Edinburgh, tracked and insured, or come across the counter. No collection service is offered, and custody runs from arrival.
Still bolted into a laptop, desktop, MacBook, iMac, server or CCTV / DVR box? Get the hard drive or SSD out first. The bare drive travels on its own. Stripping machines down is not a job this lab takes on. Flash soldered to a motherboard, as on Apple Silicon Macs and a couple of very thin laptops, is our one flat no: if it will not unbolt, it cannot be worked on.
↓ Print the shipping & booking-in form (PDF)
Address it for the attention of Edinburgh Data Recovery. From Aberdeen that is roughly 130 miles and two and a half hours down the A90, or next working day by tracked post if you would rather not make the run. You get a call the moment it is booked onto the bench.
Not sure what belongs in the box? Ring 0800 689 0668 before you tape it shut, or work through the free online diagnostic.
Ring us yourself or have the solicitor do it. Entitlement is what we settle before anything else.