Transcript
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Today we're going to talk about digital evidence and getting Digital evidence right with Tim Conlon. That's what we're calling this. And he's going to join any minute. For all I know, he's already joined and I'm in the wrong studio. Mobile phone, social media, cloud storage, email, they sit at the center of modern fact finding. But to their detriment and to that of clients, attorneys often misunderstand it or underuse the data as examples. Practitioners may not realize that client provided screenshots are often forensically weak or that text and social media can easily be forged or manipulated. That means lawyers and courts need to better understand authentication, preservation, and challenging electronic evidence. In this episode, I'm going to talk with Tim Conlon about how litigators can be more effective by gaining a deeper understanding of the space where evidence gathering and technology intersect. Through vivid case examples, including comparisons of computer and cloud backups, analysis of missing and altered files, and tracking email migrations from official to personal accounts, Tim is going to talk about how straightforward digital forensics techniques can expose concealment, manipulation, and institutional failures. He shares insights about how public exposure of digital trails changes the understanding of past misconduct. So, Tim Conlan is a partner at Darrow Everett, where he focuses on complex family court litigation and civil cases on behalf of children abused in the care of others, with particular emphasis on cases where electronic evidence and digital assets play a central role. Tim has handled matters in the forefront of litigation, from computer crime investigations in the 1980s to chairing and resolving Rhode Island's clergy abuse cases on behalf of dozens of victims. He's also a frequent lecturer on electronic evidence, trial technology, and advanced litigation issues. He's widely published on these subjects. He's author of Electronic Evidence for Family Law Attorneys, that's the American Bar association, and is currently completing an ABA book on cryptocurrency and digital assets, continuing his work at the intersection of technology and, and modern litigation. So with that, Tim will be joining me shortly. I hope you enjoy the interview. You know, first, I want to thank you for doing this today. It's a, it's an important topic to a lot of attorneys and companies and, and individuals as well. And so I appreciate your spending time on this. I, I have introduced you already. You've written quite a lot about this. You've got a new book coming out on cryptocurrency and digital assets, and so I'll make sure that people have access to how they can get that. You also wrote Electronic Evidence for Family Law Attorneys, Ben that was published by the ABA a few years ago. So we'll give those a plug and a link. But so I guess just to get started, we'll start with the big picture of digital evidence in everyday litigation. And you work a lot with family and tort and school abuse and broader civil cases. And how often does digital evidence like cell phone data, email, cloud accounts end up at the center of disputes?