Deleted messages, financial records and files can matter enormously in divorce and family proceedings — but only when they are obtained lawfully. We examine your own or jointly-owned devices, or work on your solicitor's instruction, for clients across Staines and Surrey. Free diagnostic, freephone advice.
Confidential and evidence-grade. A free diagnostic and a written scope come before any investigation begins.
In divorce and family proceedings across Staines and Surrey, these are the situations where a lawful forensic examination can help — always on a device you are entitled to examine.
Matrimonial forensics lives or dies on one question: are you entitled to examine the device? We work on three lawful footings and no others — a device that is genuinely your own, an asset you and your spouse jointly own (a shared family computer or external drive, for example), or a matter instructed through your solicitor or directed by the court. What we will never do is covertly access your husband's or wife's private, personal phone, laptop or account, however strong the suspicion. Unauthorised access to someone else's device is a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990; intercepting their private messages is unlawful; and evidence obtained that way is very likely to be ruled inadmissible — and can rebound badly on the person who gathered it. Doing it properly protects both your case and you.
From a device you are entitled to examine, a lot can come back. Deleted text messages, WhatsApp and iMessage chats, emails, documents, spreadsheets and photographs are frequently recoverable, along with browser and search history and the file timestamps that show when something was created, opened or deleted. In financial-disclosure disputes this often means reconstructing statements, transfers and accounting records that point to undisclosed income or assets — the kind of trail that matters when the figures on a Form E do not add up.
The cleanest route is usually through your solicitor. We can be instructed by one party or, very commonly in family proceedings, as a single joint expert acting for both — imaging the agreed device, examining only what the court has permitted, and reporting impartially. Our overriding duty is to the court, not to whoever pays the invoice: the report is written to be understood by a judge, with a technical appendix behind it, and it sets out our method, our findings and their limits honestly. That even-handedness is exactly what makes the evidence usable.
If the device is yours or jointly owned, the best thing you can do is stop using it and switch it off. Do not run 'recovery' apps from an app store, do not let anyone have a quick look, and do not delete or move anything to tidy up — each of those can overwrite the deleted data you are hoping to recover, or muddy the timeline. Call us in Staines and Surrey on the freephone, or ask your solicitor to instruct us, and we will handle it from there.
Matrimonial work is part of our broader forensic data recovery service; the hub sets out the evidence-grade methodology behind every examination.
From a device you own or jointly own, or one the court has directed be examined, these are the categories we most often recover.
Deleted SMS, WhatsApp, iMessage and app conversations.
Deleted mail, letters, spreadsheets and PDFs.
Deleted images and the dates embedded within them.
Browsing, searches and account activity over time.
Statements, transfers and accounting files behind disclosure.
When a file was created, opened, changed or deleted.
We do not covertly access a partner's private phone, laptop, email or social-media account, no matter how strong the suspicion or how sure you are of what is on it. Unauthorised access breaches the Computer Misuse Act 1990, interception of someone's private messages is unlawful, and evidence gathered that way is usually inadmissible and can expose you to a claim. We work only on your own devices, genuinely jointly-owned assets, or matters instructed through your solicitor or the family court — the lawful route that actually helps your case.
Matrimonial cases must be handled lawfully and preserved carefully, so please call 0800 689 0668 or have your solicitor contact us before sending a device. We will confirm the lawful basis, agree what to submit, and document the chain of custody from the moment it reaches our secure Guildford location.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the internal hard drive or SSD and send us just the drive — we don't provide an internal drive-removal service. We don't recover storage soldered to a motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops) — only drives that can be removed and sent to us.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Mark the package for the attention of Guildford Data Recovery and we'll call you as soon as we diagnose your media.
Not sure what to send? Call 0800 689 0668 first or use the free online diagnostic.
Talk to us — or have your solicitor instruct us — for a lawful, court-ready examination. Free diagnostic and freephone advice.