Many family disputes revolve around information that was thought to be gone for good. We examine devices for people in Swindon, Chippenham, Marlborough and throughout Wiltshire as long as there is a proper legal basis for it (the device belongs to them, it is genuinely jointly owned, or we have been instructed through their solicitor). Please call our freephone before you post anything to us.
Careful, quiet, defensible. No examination will begin until your free diagnostic is finished and you have agreed to a written scope, and forensic fees are then paid upfront once you accept the fixed quote.
Some examples of the common family court situations we may be able to help with, from Swindon and other areas of Wiltshire, as long as there is a right to examine the device.
Every enquiry begins with the question of entitlement, and the equipment comes after that. There are only three ways we will take on a job: the device belongs to you, it is genuinely shared (for example the family PC or a backup drive sitting on the shelf at home), or a solicitor or the court instructs us. Guessing a spouse's PIN or getting into their email is none of these. It is a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, courts rarely admit anything found that way, and most of the time it harms the very case you were trying to prove. Doing it the correct way takes some time, but it protects everything.
When a right to examine is established, a lot can be recovered, including WhatsApp threads, text messages and iMessages believed to have been wiped long ago, emails, photos with their embedded dates, documents, spreadsheets and the browsing history for the time around the events in question. Each item also has timestamps showing when it was created, opened and deleted. Where there is a dispute about disclosure, we can often rebuild statements, transfer records and bookkeeping files, which helps if what has been declared does not line up with what can be seen.
A lot of our family work comes through solicitors, and either arrangement works equally well for us, whether we are instructed on behalf of one party or act as single joint expert (SJE) for both. As SJE we image the agreed device, and all examination stays within the bounds of what the court has allowed. Our duty in the report is to the court and never to the person who pays. We therefore prepare findings so that they can be lifted verbatim by a judge into the judgment, with an explanation of the technical side of how we got there and the limits of the evidence set out as clearly as the evidence itself.
If you have the right to inspect a device which may be relevant to the court, then the best thing to do is nothing. Each time it is unlocked it writes new data over what was held before. Recovery apps, and even a well-meaning relative who wants to have a look, will write further data, and both will likely interfere with the timestamps a judge will later rely on. Switch off the device, store it safely and then contact us from anywhere in Wiltshire, or have your solicitor contact us. From this point onward everything will be logged.
How we do imaging, hashing and custody for family investigations is explained fully on our forensic data recovery hub. Forensic work is paid upfront once you accept the fixed quote. That's £800 + VAT for the normal examination and the report, or if you'd prefer just a binary image and deleted-file extraction, that will be £400 + VAT with no report. Both options are also shown on our data recovery cost page. If a family computer is encrypted with BitLocker it can be opened first, provided the recovery key is lawfully yours to give.
From a device you own, jointly own or that a court has directed, these are the categories most commonly used to decide family matters.
Recovering WhatsApp messages, iMessages and SMS conversations after they were deleted.
Restoring emails, letters, spreadsheets and PDFs that have been deleted.
Restoring deleted images with their embedded creation time and date stamp.
A record of searches and browsing, including sign-in activity, as it happened.
Recovery of account statements, transfers and accounting records that support the numbers.
Creation dates of files, the times they were opened and the times they were deleted, to anchor your version of events.
We will not get into a spouse's private mobile phone, computer or accounts behind their back, regardless of how urgent it is or how much you need to be sure, and we never will. That route breaches the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and creates evidence which a court would most likely reject. It also gives the other side a potential weapon. There are three possible entry points to this service and they are your own device, an item you genuinely share, or an instruction through your solicitor or the family court. There is no fourth option.
The reason we need a conversation before any device travels is that family matters often start with a discussion about entitlement, so please ring 0800 689 0668 or have your solicitor contact us. Once we have confirmed agreement, the drive (and not the entire machine) needs to arrive at our Oxford lab by tracked next day post, or it can be dropped off at reception, no appointment needed. Custody is recorded from the moment the drive arrives.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the internal hard drive or SSD and send us just the drive (from a server, every disk, each labelled with its bay), as we don't offer a drive-removal service. We don't recover storage soldered to a motherboard (for example T2 and Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops), only drives that can be removed and sent to us. If you're not sure which kind you have, ring us first.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Mark the package for the attention of Oxford Data Recovery and we'll ring you as soon as we've diagnosed your media.
Not sure what to send? Ring 0800 689 0668 first or use the free online diagnostic.
Call us or get your solicitor to call us. Lawful footing comes first, then court-ready handling throughout.