15 Feb I like happy attorneys

Not long ago I talked to an attorney client. We worked with him on a case which involved a federal suit by a public employee. Our part was recovering details of activity on a work computer but it went beyond the usual hard drive imaging and analysis. We were asked to provide an opinion on the individual computer components. Had hard drives been switched, etc.? As an electrical engineer I really enjoy investigating interesting questions of this sort. They allow presenting opinions that have a broad engineering basis, not just the results of a single forensic tool.

In these situations we don’t work as advocates for either side; attorneys do that. We focus on representing the facts, quantifying observations and reporting our opinions… so that they can be understood by humans, not just geeks.

The attorney was happy that getting factual material into the case moderated the settlement which was reached shortly after our report was received.