Family proceedings put deleted material under a discipline of its own: it assists only if it was obtained lawfully and preserved properly. For clients and family solicitors around York — from the Minster-quarter practices to firms in Selby and Malton — we examine devices there is a clear right to examine, and we put that footing in writing before any work begins.
◇ Method before speed. The free assessment and a written scope come first; forensic fees are settled in full before any examination starts. 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.
Always on a device that is yours, genuinely shared, or named in a solicitor's or court's instruction — never otherwise.
Every family instruction starts with one question: what right exists to examine this device? Three answers allow work to begin — it is yours, it is genuinely joint property such as the family PC or the shared backup drive, or a solicitor or the court has directed the examination. Nothing else does. Guessing a spouse's passcode or reading their private email breaches the Computer Misuse Act 1990, and material obtained that way tends to wound the party who obtained it. Patience here costs days; it protects the case for years.
Where the footing exists, deletion is rarely the end. From computers, shared drives and phone backups held on them we recover message threads, photographs with their capture dates still embedded, documents and spreadsheets, and the browsing and sign-in record surrounding the dates in issue. Each recovered item keeps its timestamps — created, altered, deleted — so it can be placed in order. In disclosure disputes that regularly extends to statements, transfer evidence and business bookkeeping bearing on the figures put before the court.
Instruction usually arrives through solicitors, and both shapes are routine: acting for one party, or as single joint expert by agreement between the two. Under a joint appointment the identified device is imaged a single time, the examination is confined to the scope the court has allowed, and the report answers to the court, not to the paying client. Findings are written so a judge can lift them directly, and the evidence's limits get the same prominence as its strengths.
If a machine within your rights to examine could matter, the best contribution you can make is stillness. Unlocking it writes new data; app-store recovery tools write more; a relative having a look writes most of all, and every write re-dates something a court may later need. Switch it off, keep it somewhere safe, note where it has been, and either ring the freephone or have your solicitor contact us — handling is documented from that conversation onward.
How devices are imaged, verified and stored is explained at the forensic recovery hub; deletion evidence in detail sits on the deleted-file forensics page, and preservation practice under legal hold & chain of custody. Fees are on our prices page.
From a device that is yours, genuinely shared, or court-directed for examination.
Chat and text conversations recovered after deletion, kept in order.
Deleted images with their embedded capture dates intact.
Erased letters, statements and bookkeeping files brought back.
Browsing and sign-ins through the hours that matter.
Financial records that bear on the figures before the court.
Created, altered and deleted timestamps anchoring the account.
The free diagnostic that opens every case is completed within 2 working days of arrival; forensic casework itself is not a no fix, no fee service. 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. Both figures are itemised on our prices page, and the written scope is agreed before payment is taken.
Family matters proceed on your own or genuinely jointly owned devices, or under a solicitor's or court's direction. Instructions are accepted on three footings only: equipment the company itself owns; the instruction of a solicitor, insurer or court; or devices that are genuinely the client's own — including jointly owned machines in matrimonial matters. We do not hack, we do not intercept live communications, and we do not examine a device the instructing client has no right to examine.
Entitlement is confirmed on the telephone ahead of anything travelling: speak to us on 0800 689 0668 — your solicitor is welcome to make that call instead. Agreed devices then reach our Leeds location tracked next-day or by hand, with custody logged from arrival.
Is the drive still inside a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Take the hard drive or SSD out first and post the bare drive on its own — removing drives from machines isn't a service we offer. Storage that's soldered to a motherboard (Apple Silicon Macs, certain slim laptops) is the one thing we can't work on: if it doesn't come out, it can't come in.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Address the parcel for the attention of Leeds Data Recovery — about 40 minutes from York via the A64 and A1(M), or next working day by tracked post. You'll hear from us the moment it's booked onto the bench.
Not certain what to pack? Ring 0800 689 0668 first, or run the free online diagnostic.
Ring us or route it through your solicitor — the lawful footing comes first, always.