Criminal Defense

Many computer forensics firms have close ties to law enforcement and maintain a hands-off attitude toward criminal defense projects. Access Forensics realizes that it is not in a position to pass judgement on its clients. We seek only to deliver accurate data analysis and relevant consultation regarding the context in which that data is found.

Access Forensics has worked on numerous criminal matters and is experienced in dealing with the complexities involved in working with law enforcement to gain access to electronic evidence. In some cases, we have been able to work with our clients to gain access to seized materials prior to indictment. In matters where evidence cannot be released from law enforcement custody, such as those protected under the Adam Walsh Act, Access Forensics will work with evidence custodians to arrange an on-site examination. Rules governing such examinations vary among jurisdictions and even within agencies. We have been down these many roads and are prepared to save you and your client time, money and grief through our experience.

Civil Litigation

From intellectual property disputes to family law, electronically stored information has become a fact of life in most every type of case. Don’t turn to the local IT shop or in-house “IT guy”. While they may be highly skilled in their roles, they are generally not prepared for the chain of custody, data preservation and follow-up testimony requirements involved in a properly managed legal matter.

Effort and Expense

The effort required for any given forensic acquisition or analysis project is almost impossible to estimate in advance. It is simply not possible to design forensic acquisition hardware or analysis software capable of interacting seamlessly with every device in every imaginable environment. Our engineers have years of experience working high-volume cases and are familiar with the problems often encountered during any type of data forensics exercise. While these problems can’t be anticipated, they can usually be quickly worked around by an experienced technician.

Access Forensics occasionally receives suggestions regarding a move toward a flat pricing structure for its forensic services. While other firms have endeavored to offer flat-rate pricing, we believe it to be a dangerously misleading marketing strategy. With so many variables involved in the services we deliver, our preference is to properly educate our client and develop a framework of expectations based on factors such as data volume, desired turn-around time, anticipated type and quantity of data queries, and the format of deliverables.

Circumstances that have a direct and significant impact on processing time and price include:

• Computer usage habits: Computers accessed by multiple individuals or by advanced users will generally contain significant quantities of historical data which has an inflationary impact on processing time.
• Age of computer: While common logic might suggest that older computers have smaller hard drives which should, therefore, be quicker and cheaper to process, this is not always the case. Computer hard drives can become quite fickle over time. They may work perfectly well with their native computer but may ’speak’ very slowly or not at all with the hardware used for forensic acquisition. Coaxing unwilling hardware into action is a regular part of a forensic examiner’s job and will, once again, add time and cost to a project.