Material recovered for family proceedings is only useful if two things hold: the device could lawfully be examined, and the handling was documented while it happened. We work for family solicitors in the commercial district and in Chester, and for their clients across Merseyside, on devices where the entitlement is beyond argument — and that entitlement is put in writing before an image is taken.
◇ Scope first, then work. Diagnosis is free and comes at the beginning; the written scope follows, and the forensic fee is paid in full before an examiner opens the image. No fix, no fee all jobs except electronic and mechanical failures, chip level work, DVR and Forensic jobs. The whole price list sits on the data recovery cost page.
Yours, genuinely shared, or named in an instruction from a solicitor or the court. Nothing else qualifies.
Each family instruction begins at the same place: on what basis may this device be examined? Three answers qualify. It belongs to you. It is genuinely shared, like the computer in the kitchen or a backup drive bought between you. Or a solicitor or the court has directed the examination. Working out a spouse's passcode, or opening mail that is theirs alone, amounts to unauthorised access under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, and evidence gathered that way has a habit of damaging the party who gathered it. Establishing entitlement takes a couple of days. Getting it wrong can cost the case.
Deleting a thing seldom finishes it. Computers, shared drives and the telephone backups stored on them return conversations, photographs with the capture date still readable, correspondence and spreadsheets, and the sign-in and browsing record around the days in dispute. Each item keeps its clock — created, modified, deleted — so the sequence can be rebuilt. In financial remedy proceedings under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, where both parties owe a duty of full and frank disclosure, that frequently extends to statements, transfers and the bookkeeping behind figures already filed.
Solicitors appoint in two ways: for a single party, or as single joint expert once both sides agree. On a joint appointment the named device is imaged once, the examination stays inside the permitted scope, and the duty is owed to the court rather than to whoever pays — the principle set out at CPR 35.3 and carried across into the family rules. Findings are written so that a judge can take them straight off the page, and weaknesses in the evidence are given the same space as strengths.
If a device you may lawfully examine could matter, the most valuable thing you can do with it is nothing. Unlocking writes to it. Recovery apps from the app store write a great deal more. A relative who wants to help writes most of all, and every write shifts a date somebody may later rely on. Power it off, put it somewhere safe, note where it has been, and ring us, or ask your solicitor to. Documentation starts from that call.
Imaging, verification and storage are described at the forensic recovery hub. Dating a deletion is dealt with by deleted-file forensics, and holding material safely by legal hold and chain of custody. Costs are set out on the prices page.
Taken only from devices you own, genuinely share, or have been directed to produce.
Chat and message threads restored after deletion and kept in sequence.
Deleted images with their capture dates still embedded and legible.
Erased correspondence, statements and accounting files.
Sign-in and browsing activity through the hours in dispute.
Financial papers bearing on the figures each party has filed.
Created, modified and deleted times, fixing every item to a date.
Diagnosis is free and takes 2 working days from the morning the parcel is opened. Nothing forensic runs under no fix, no fee. A forensic investigation ending in a written report is £800 + VAT, settled in full before the examination opens. Where no report is wanted, the binary image with deleted-file extraction stands on its own at £400 + VAT. Forensic work is paid for in advance, without exception. The same two figures appear on the prices page, and you are asked for nothing until the written scope has been agreed.
Family instructions run on your own devices, on genuinely shared property, or on a direction from a solicitor or the court. Only three routes reach an examination and there is no fourth. Hardware the business itself bought. A written instruction from solicitors, from an insurer or from the court. Or a device belonging to the client, which in a family matter extends to a machine the couple own between them. Nothing is broken into on this bench. Live traffic is never intercepted: that power belongs to the agencies named in the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 and nowhere else. If a client may not lawfully look inside a device, the answer here is the same one.
Entitlement is agreed on the telephone before a parcel is made up. Ring 0800 689 0668 yourself, or have your solicitor do it. Agreed devices then go by tracked, insured post to the Manchester laboratory; nothing is collected, Liverpool has no counter, and custody is recorded from arrival.
Still screwed inside a laptop, tower, MacBook, iMac, server or a CCTV recorder? Take the drive out and post that on its own. We do not strip machines here, and any computer shop will do it in a few minutes. The one job nobody can take on is flash soldered straight to a logic board, as on Apple Silicon Macs and a handful of very slim laptops: if the storage will not unbolt, there is nothing to send.
↓ Print the shipping & booking-in form (PDF)
Address it to Manchester Data Recovery. It is roughly 35 miles from Liverpool along the M62 if you fancy the run, and next working day by tracked post if you do not. We ring or email the moment it is booked in, and the free diagnostic closes 2 working days after that.
Not sure what belongs in the parcel? Call 0800 689 0668 before you tape it shut, or step through the free online diagnostic first.
Ring us, or ask your solicitor to — the right to examine is what we settle before anything else.