Couples, divorce and computers...

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LHumberto

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Hello all!

Hypothetical questions:

a) on a divorce case, the wife kept the couple's computer after the husband left. Both had accounts on that computer (windows XP). The wife wants to perform acquisition / e-discovery on the computer in search of incriminating docs / e-mails and possible unknown bank accounts, etc.. Is it necessary o court other to make the acquisition usable in court?

b) on a divorce case, husband and wife had different computers, however, the wife was a CPA and kept the QuickBooks files for the husband's firm on her PC. Are those files discoverable? Is a court order necessary to grant access to those files?


Thx in advance for your reply.
 
Hello all!

Hypothetical questions:

a) on a divorce case, the wife kept the couple's computer after the husband left. Both had accounts on that computer (windows XP). The wife wants to perform acquisition / e-discovery on the computer in search of incriminating docs / e-mails and possible unknown bank accounts, etc.. Is it necessary o court other to make the acquisition usable in court?

b) on a divorce case, husband and wife had different computers, however, the wife was a CPA and kept the QuickBooks files for the husband's firm on her PC. Are those files discoverable? Is a court order necessary to grant access to those files?


Thx in advance for your reply.

What class is this for?
 
Couples, divorce and computers..

SeniorJudge,

I did not understand your question. Class?! Do you mean legal class?

Well, let me clarify that I'm not a Lawyer, rather a Computer Forensic Analyst looking for clarification on a possible e-Discovery scenario.

Thank you.
 
Hello all!

Hypothetical questions:

a) on a divorce case, the wife kept the couple's computer after the husband left. Both had accounts on that computer (windows XP). The wife wants to perform acquisition / e-discovery on the computer in search of incriminating docs / e-mails and possible unknown bank accounts, etc.. Is it necessary o court other to make the acquisition usable in court?

b) on a divorce case, husband and wife had different computers, however, the wife was a CPA and kept the QuickBooks files for the husband's firm on her PC. Are those files discoverable? Is a court order necessary to grant access to those files?
My understanding is as follows:

(a) If the wife wants to check the husband's information on the computer which was in his accounts, chances are she would require a subpoena to do so. But that isn't all - she would need authentication which would likely mean a third party doing the research on the PC's hard drive and providing a report.

(b) I don't understand this one. Almost everything can be discoverable if relevant and the question is the route one needs to take to get them into court and to authenticate. But here I'm not sure what is going on because this is a business file and would need more information.
 
TLP,

Thank you for your answers. Again, those are just theoretical questions. As a Computer Forensic / e-Discovery professional without formal law training, sometimes I'm faced with clients' requests that travel into a gray area of what is appropriate / legal / permissible and I'm just searching for discussion on those areas that would assist me and others.

With that being said, let me change the approach: is there a situation where a spouse could grant access to a professional so he could forensically image the other's computer hard drive (or account in the same computer or any ESI) to be used as evidence without a court order?

Thank you for your answers.
 
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