The Sealed-Box Protocol
Ensuring chain of custody integrity in high-conflict litigation.
In twenty-five years of corporate intelligence, I have seen perfectly good evidence thrown out of court not because the data was wrong, but because the process was fragile.
In high-conflict scenarios—especially those involving unions and defensive employees—the moment you touch a computer, you are on the clock. If you try to extract data on-site, you run into the "Notary Dilemma." Most notaries are rightly terrified of certifying a digital disk when they have no idea what it contains. If they refuse to sign off, your chain of custody has a hole in it before you have even started.
The Methodology
- Employee-Led Sealing: Instead of seizing the laptop, we have the employee place it in a box themselves. This is performed in front of a notary, company representatives, and union leaders.
- The Wax Seal: We do not just use tape. The employee seals the box with a physical wax stamp and signs across the seals. It is simple, tactile, and physically impossible to tamper with without leaving a permanent "smoking gun."
- Neutral Transit: The box is couriered to a Notary Public in Madrid. The notary does not need to be a technical expert; they only have to verify that the wax seal is intact.
- Joint Forensic Imaging: Only when all parties are present is the seal broken. We image the drive, generate SHA-256 hashes to "freeze" the data, and run pre-agreed keyword lists.
Outcome
This protocol works because it is transparent. By involving the employee and their representatives in the sealing, you neutralize the "bad faith" argument before it starts. You obtain your evidence, the legal team receives a bulletproof chain of custody, and the company avoids a public relations disaster.