Attorneys' Investigative Consultants

 

Until now,  we have argued that we conduct investigations  --  we do not sell hard-to-get information or tactics. Thus if a client contacts us and tells us that he needs "a surveillance", we counter with a key question,  "What are you trying to determine?" Sometimes "a surveillance" is the most appropriate approach to the investigative problem -- and sometimes it is not.  A client can hire us to get him the information he needs. He cannot hire us to apply a particular tactic.

	However, Computer Forensics is in its infancy and its potential as an investigative tool is yet to be fully explored. We believe that like DNA, CF has the potential of developing both inculpatory and exculpatory evidence, that without its use, will remain hidden.
	Crude, early use of CF can be traced back to about 1985, roughly 3 or 4 years after the advent of the IBM PC.  However, it was not until 1990 that the law enforcement community started taking its potential at its true value. For example, it was not until 1993 that Orange County California, with its population at that time of more than 2.3 million, obtained its first conviction in a murder case using evidence unearthed by use of CF.
	Law enforcement has continued to take the lead spending large sums on training and automated software. Academia has contributed handsomely to the development o f software and methodology.
	Software developers have stepped into an expanding market for Computer Forensic tools and continue to profit from both training and software.

	The private sector has been a lot slower to recognize the potential of CF and in truth has been frightened away by huge fees. That however is changing rapidly. An ever expanding skilled workforce and highly reliable automated CF tools and of course, competition, have caused prices of CF work to drop rapidly. We now see computer forensic fees as being within the budgets of all clients!
	As I noted at the outset, CF is only a tool, it is not a substitute for investigation. But, with some estimates that 85% of the time, some evidence of illicit activity can be found on computers, it is a tactic we always consider.