Digital evidence that holds up, and an examiner who can testify to it
When a matter turns on what is on a device, in an account, or in a data set, your firm needs two things: evidence collected and documented so it survives a challenge, and an examiner who can take the stand and explain it.
This is the hub for mobile and computer forensics, e-discovery and ESI collection, expert-witness testimony, and insider-threat and fraud matters.
The spoke pages below route you to the specific engagement your case needs, and the literal head term,digital forensics for attorneys, lives on its own page.
Engagements are confidential and structured to begin within 48 hours of the consultation.
Some service tracks are offered at a fixed fee; complex investigations are billed hourly with a clear scope, milestone updates, and a cap agreed up front.
Quinn (Founder and CEO) oversees every engagement and reviews every case before findings leave the practice; the practitioner team executes the technical work under her methodology.
- A direct line to Quinn, the founder, not a sales pipeline.
- Worked in-house by the examiner who scoped it.
- Explainable findings you can verify, with the methodology shown.
Route your matter
- Digital forensics for attorneys covers the litigation-support core: acquisition, analysis, FRE 901/902 foundations, reporting.
- Text message evidence for court covers producing, certifying (FRE 902(14)), and defending text threads; fabricated-message examination.
- Spoliation forensic analysis covers deletion-timing and wiping-artifact analysis, emergency preservation, FRCP 37(e) technical support.
- E-discovery services for law firms covers defensible forensic ESI collection, legal-hold support, load-file delivery.
- Cybersecurity expert witness covers Rule 702 reports, testimony, and rebuttal review of opposing experts.
- Digital forensics for divorce and forensic phone extraction covers the family-law track.
- Insider threat and fraud investigation covers employee misconduct, trade-secret theft, event reconstruction.
Field work runs through our licensed private investigator referral network, including the surveillance investigation referral and the insurance fraud investigation referral for SIU and claims counsel. SleuthX is not a licensed private investigator agency; investigative work requiring licensure is referred to licensed partners who perform it under their own licenses. The forensic examination, e-discovery, and expert work on this page is SleuthX’s own practice.
What this means for you
- Written scope before any work. You see a written scope covering deliverables, timeline, and price, and you approve it before we begin. You are never billed for work you did not authorize.
- We commit to findings, not outcomes. We tell you up front what the evidence can and cannot establish. Recovery, attribution, and prosecution are decided by banks, platforms, insurers, and courts. We produce the record they act on, and we put that distinction in writing.
- Every case is investigated, not just scanned. A credentialed examiner reviews every case before findings leave the practice. You get a documented investigation to court-admissible standards, not a single automated scan and a one-line answer.
- We will tell you if you do not need us. If a free or simpler step would resolve your situation, whether a police report, an IC3 filing, or a platform's own recovery flow, we point you there first.
Engagement and pricing, stated plainly
Attorneys tell us the vendor rate card is the thing nobody publishes.
Ours: a flat $400/hr for analysis, reporting, deposition, and trial time, at the same rate for testimony days with no surge, against a $5,000 refundable retainer.
Well-bounded engagements (single-device extraction, a defined preservation) can be fixed-fee.
Scope, deliverables, and a budget cap go in writing before work begins, and conflicts checks are same-day.
Privileged structure is standard: your firm engages the practice directly, so work product sits under attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine from the first call.
The examiner behind the work
Every finding that leaves this practice is reviewed by Quinn Varcoe, the examiner who will sign the report and, when the matter requires it, take the stand. prepared to testify on any report the practice issues, with Rule 26(a)(2)(B) disclosures provided at engagement.
The methodology is aligned to NIST SP 800-86 and SWGDE practice, backed by 9 active certifications across GIAC, each verifiable with the issuing body.
Where a matter requires Cellebrite, Magnet AXIOM, or a similar extraction platform, those platforms are engaged through our partner network.
One examiner, one methodology, no junior intermediaries between your trial team and the person who did the work.
The litigation library
The depth behind these service pages is published and free, written for counsel and organized by matter type:
Family law and custody
- Screenshots aren’t enough: why family-law texts need a forensic extraction
- How to authenticate text messages in court (FRE 901 & 902)
- The hearsay trap: when text-message evidence gets thrown out
- What digital evidence actually proves in a custody fight
- Finding hidden assets in divorce
- Recovering deleted photos and location data for a family-law case
- Spoliation in family law: sanctions when the other side deletes evidence
- A litigation-hold template that covers a phone
- iCloud & Google backups: what counsel can and can’t subpoena
- What a divorce forensic exam costs
Expert witness and admissibility
- How to vet and qualify a digital forensic expert (Daubert checklist)
- Challenging the other side’s forensic report
- What goes into a court-ready forensic report
- Chain of custody, explained for litigators
- Expert witness vs. collection vendor: which do you need?
E-discovery and ESI
- E-discovery vs. digital forensics: which do you need?
- Collecting text messages and mobile data for e-discovery, defensibly
- Slack, Teams, and ephemeral-messaging discovery
- The small-firm guide to ESI from phones and cloud apps
Criminal defense, location, and social evidence
- How to challenge a phone extraction in criminal defense
- Geofence and cell-tower location evidence, explained
- Authenticating social-media evidence for trial
How an engagement begins
- Confidential consultation. NDA-protected. 30-60 minutes. Direct conversation, no sales process.
- Scoped engagement. Written proposal with defined deliverables and pricing, a fixed fee where it applies and hourly with milestone caps for open-ended investigations.
- Investigation and findings. Court-ready standards. Written report you can act on.
Why this work matters
Every engagement is built to be defensible, with a documented chain of custody, FRE 901-ready methodology, findings that survive cross-examination.
Quinn holds 9 active certifications across GIAC, a methodology trusted by Fortune 50 enterprises, defense contractors, and the attorneys who refer to us.
