Terms of Service

Please note that a complete DataChasers® Fee Schedule, which includes applicable hourly rates and detailed accounting information, is immediately available by e-mail or fax; all billing contingencies and services adhere to the detailed Fee Schedule. Please Contact Us for that specific information.

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This document augments DataChasers’ standard Agreement with information that provides and explains DataChasers® terms, policy, and operating procedures for Client’s information.

2. Right to Authorize Agreement and Inclusion of Items:

1. For the purposes of this Agreement, the term/s “item, items, or item/s” include but are not limited to any/all property, computers, equipment, hard drives, hardware, software, data, evidence, media, work product, or electronically stored information (“ESI”) included or potentially included in this Agreement/engagement between Client and DataChasers® Inc.
2. Client warrants and affirms that they have the lawful right and authority to sanction and authorize this forensic computer, and/or file, and/or media, and/or network examination because (1) all items are under their ownership, dominion and control; and/or (2) due to consent agreement, court order or other legal process; and/or (3) no privacy protection law, issue, or privacy expectation whatsoever is compromised or violated by this examination; and (4) this examination is in accordance with all laws, regulations and codes, and (5) this Agreement is regarding the examination of an inanimate machine—to wit: computer(s) and/or media.
3. It is Client’s desire and intent that this Agreement includes all items associated with DataChasers® services, whether added before or after the date of signing, or whether specifically listed herein or not: All items are intended to be included in this Agreement.
4. It is Client’s desire and intent that this Agreement includes all items associated with DataChasers® services, whether added before or after the date of signing, or whether specifically listed herein or not: All items are intended to be included in this Agreement.
5. DataChasers’ discovery (or becoming aware) of any media, data, or content (“material”) whatsoever, does not in any way restrict or prohibit DataChasers from complying with all laws and regulations that may apply to such material; the appraisal, evaluation, opinion and disposition of such material is at DataChasers sole and complete discretion. 
6. A current court order, specific to DataChasers, MUST accompany any and all material which may, by their nature or content, be restricted or illegal for any person not in law enforcement or an officer of the Court to possess. 
7. Client shall provide to DCI a copy of any/all expert witness designation relative to this Agreement or engagement.

3. All Services Are Dependent On Agreement, SOW, & Retainer:

1. All services are contingent on a signed Service Agreement, signed Scope of Work (SOW) form, and retainer. DataChasers makes no promises or representations until the type of case, the scope, and the parameters of the case are confirmed. Any change in the SOW may require an additional signed SOW.
2. The SOW determines the totality of tasks/services; any change in which may require an additional signed SOW.
3. All remuneration for services is in accordance with DataChasers® current Fee Schedule. Advanced and continuing compensation (“retainer”) is normally required. The retainer presumes Client’s accurate description of the scope of the project; will be sufficient to fund the total job; may be adjusted for specific requirements; must be funded prior to depletion; but does not include further services or testimony of any kind.  Service is rarely rendered in arrears, and Client agrees to fund the continuing examination accordingly.
4. Client is ultimately responsible and agrees to compensate DataChasers® for all services at the agreed upon rate/s for all DataChasers functions related to this Agreement, including but not limited to: examinations; litigation preparation; expert witness services, depositions, etc.; whether under order of subpoena or not and regardless of the party requesting the appearance.
5. Cases are assigned first-come-first-served. Client may receive an account statement on request, understands that service is rarely rendered in arrears, and agrees to fund the continuing examination accordingly.
6. Any portion of funds paid by Client and not used in accordance with this Agreement is refundable.

4. Confidentiality; Contingency; Expectation; Totality; & Liability:

1. The relationship between DataChasers Inc.® (“DCI”) and Client is confidential.  Reports are made at Client’s request, for Client’s information only.
2. DCI agrees to be an advocate for the data, the litigation process, and the jury; therefore, DCI’s fees are not contingent on the results obtained by this engagement or on the outcome of any examination, service, or testimony—the evidence speaks for itself. There is no guarantee, expectation, representation or promise expressed or implied by DCI as to the outcome of this/any examination, service or testimony whatsoever.
3. Any written and/or oral consultation provided by DataChasers is advisory only, based on the information and/or circumstances as perceived and/or supposed at the time by DCI, and DCI has made no guarantee, representation or promise for any particular results.
4. The entire manner, methods, means, totality, and sufficiency of conducting any and all examinations shall be within the sole discretion of DataChasers. DataChasers may and does assign Clients’ examination services to independent contractors.
5. Client confirms that DataChasers is not liable/responsible whatsoever for any of the following: any type of loss, damage, corruption or theft of any items, property, equipment or data; or any hardware or software or media failure of any type; or for maintaining, safeguarding, backing up, preserving, archiving or storing any/all property, records, reports, data, or media of any kind; or for any claims relating to the aforementioned as a result of DataChasers’ services. If desired/applicable, Client is solely responsible for accomplishing a backup of all data/media prior to DataChasers involvement and DataChasers® is in no way responsible for accomplishing or advising to accomplish this backup.

5. Indemnification:

1. DataChasers® is an independent contractor at the behest of Client, and will not, in any way, be considered or held liable for any aspect of this Agreement/engagement, or from/in any action (“Claims”) resulting therefrom.
2. Client shall, at its expense, protect, defend, indemnify, hold harmless, separated and immune DataChasers, its principals, officers, employees, and independent contractors from any and all liabilities, claims, consequences, causes of action, losses, damages, expense, or costs (“Claims”) (including reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses) whatsoever, which may arise out of or in connection with DataChasers’ good faith efforts, activities, services, performance, or examinations engaged in or rendered on behalf of Client.
3. Notwithstanding the aforesaid, DataChasers shall never be held liable, whatsoever, for any Claims exceeding the remuneration originally paid to DataChasers; regardless of by whom it was paid or for what purpose.

6. Commitment, Retention, Storage and Disposition of Items:

1. It is Client’s intention and demand that all of DataChasers’ obligations are considered fulfilled, with no further commitment expressed nor implied, and that DCI is not requested/required to retain any items, whatsoever, after: (1) Client has received whatever services and/or information were initially requested from DCI and the results were relayed to Client either verbally or on electronic media (e.g., CD, etc.); or (2) DCI is notified that an initial disposition, verdict or finding has been rendered (case has “settled”); or (3) after nine calendar months—approximately 270 days—following DCI’s last (most recent) actual job-task service (excluding communications) and Client has not made other arrangements for storage.  Client requests/requires no notification, whatsoever, from DCI prior to disposition of any item/s. This section relieves DCI of any responsibility or obligation to retain any items, whatsoever, but does not restrict DCI from the inadvertent retention of any items. Client must notify DCI for or regarding any exceptions to this section. E-mail is the preferred method for notifications or communications regarding this section; it is Client’s responsibility to advise of any change in their e-mail address.
2. Storage fees may take effect 180 days following DCI’s last (most recent) actual job-task service (excluding communications).
3. Any and all items that have not been claimed and fully paid for (including storage fees) within one calendar year following DataChasers’ last (most recent) actual job-task service (excluding communications) shall be considered abandoned by Client and may be disposed of (including all data/media containing data) at DataChasers’ sole discretion, and DataChasers is under no obligation to give prior notice to Client.
4. Any/all items submitted to or acquired/discovered by DataChasers relating to this Agreement may be held as surety until the retainer is fully funded or the balance owed is zero.
5. Client agrees to pay any/all debt-collection costs, including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys fees.

7. Authority; Terms of Agreement; Termination of Agreement; Separation:

1. All conditions and provisions of this Agreement are made with the knowledge, consent and approval of Client’s legal counsel.  This Agreement must be consummated within ten (10) days of being submitted, after which a revised edition may be required.
2. This Agreement constitutes the full and complete agreement between DataChasers and Client; no other Agreement (sans and except for the Rate Schedule and TP&SOP  document), statement, or promise relating to the subject matter of this Agreement, which is not contained herein, shall be valid or binding.
3. Client and DataChasers® each have the right to immediately terminate this Agreement and withdraw completely without liability, claim, consequence, or causes of action. Cause/s to terminate and withdraw by either party may include but are not limited to: undisclosed and/or unanticipated time parameters/demands; failure to comply with retainer/payment provisions of this Agreement; tasks, work conditions, or performance demands such of which vex the conscience, ethics, or ability of either party; inactivity of ninety (90) days after initial retention with no actual job-task services having been performed.
4. Any dispute or controversy arising out of or in any manner concerning this agreement shall be resolved by final and binding arbitration in accordance with the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association, offices located within forty (40) miles of DataChasers headquarters.  The prevailing party in such proceeding, as determined by the sole arbitrator, may be entitled to recover his reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs and arbitration fees from the non-prevailing party as part of the award.
5. Any provision of this Agreement found to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction shall be considered severable from the remainder of the Agreement.

8. Retainer and Applicable Billing Considerations (see Fee Schedule for pricing):
Pricing for services is explained on the current Rate Schedule, and is applicable at the time of this Agreement being consummated.

1. Computer forensic examinations include extraction, production, and computer-use analysis of all hard drive (“HDD”) data, including deleted data. Retainer amount is dependent on scope of work (“SOW”), size of hard drive/s (“HDD”), expenses, travel, etc.  Per custodian pricing (i.e., each workstation/laptop) with specifically defined scope of project is available for engagements of ten or more HDDs.  A credit card authorization form may be required at any time during the engagement period.
2. E-Discovery services are price-on-request (“POR”) based upon several factors (see Fee Schedule), including but not limited to: (1) Forensic culling NSRL (National Software Reference Library) Hash value analysis to remove program and system files.  (2) Data reduction culling (the data reduction service provides the client with the opportunity to more thoroughly cull the universe of data via directed searching and filtering. This service is tailored to the specific needs of the client and can be used on native files, e-mail storage files, and compressed file containers).  (3) Standard EDD Production, includes native file, extracted text, metadata, image (PDF or Tiff), load file and production reports (includes section level de-duplication and QC sampling).  (4)  Most other tasks associated with the production of the EDD are billed at the standard hourly rate. These tasks may include, but are not limited to: password cracking, password entry, production troubleshooting, manual processing, technical services, etc.
3. Ancillary Services, Private Investigations/Consultation, DataChasers provides licensed private investigation services (including but not limited to consulting, interview and/or interrogation), which generally require the services of a licensed private investigator, and are generally billed at a daily (or any portion thereof) rate; please see Fee Schedule.
4. Retainer only, requiring no further services, confirms retention, DataChasers® availability to provide additional services, and/or confirmation as expert against like retention by conflicting parties or opposing counsel in the above named matter only. NOTE: Designation as expert (in any capacity) requires a funded Attorney’s Retainer Agreement or Service Agreement.
5. Expert witness services for any court-related presence, appearance, hearing, testimony, etc. is a minimum of two (2) hours. Expert witness retainer is normally for a full day (8 hours), paid daily, prior to or upon arrival, plus travel and expenses. Any remainder is refundable. On-Call (Standby) time is one hour of the set expert witness rate for each morning and each afternoon standby is requested. A scheduled appearance cancelled less than five days prior to that date may be charged four (4) hours.
6. Data recovery is generally considered recovering data from a “crashed” HDD, or other compromised data; see Fee Schedule.
7. Servers: Imaging, extraction and initial processing for each server is billed individually; subsequent examination is billed at standard rate for either computer forensics or e-discovery, whichever is applicable.
8. Network Intrusion includes examination and consultation (see Fee Schedule).
9. Travel considerations and driving time charges are negotiable for extensive travel engagements. Driving time over one (1) hour each way is halved (e.g., two hours travel is billed as one hour). Halving driving time may not be applicable on rushed cases. All air travel is no less than Business Class rates unless otherwise agreed upon.
10. Premium Fee Rate for any/all services may be applied for each extenuating circumstance/s due to increased expenses or demands, including but not limited to: extended hours (outside normal business hours); poor environment; rush-jobs (less than 48 hours notice); type of case (e.g., specialized forensic services, criminal defense, etc.—increased expenses); and other anomalies.
11. Third-Party Witness accompaniment may be required whenever the possibility exists of DataChasers integrity or conduct being subject to any gratuitous or unprovoked allegations. The third-party witness is generally selected by DataChasers; however, the witness selection must be approved by DataChasers if chosen by any other party.
12. Storage, Retention, and Disposition of Client’s data/media/property (items), and/or work product/s, see above.
13. Billing factors and misc. considerations (see Fee Schedule for pricing):  (1) Client is ultimately responsible for payment at the agreed upon rate/s for all of DataChasers’ services related to this Agreement, including examinations, case work, litigation preparation, expert witness services, etc.  (2) Client may receive an account statement on request, and understands that service is rarely rendered in arrears (consideration may be given at the onset/starting for exigent/emergency circumstances); the retainer must be maintained with sufficient funds to ensure that the retainer is not exhausted by current or anticipated tasks/expenses.  (3) The invoice may exceed original retainer without Client notification. Any balance owed is due immediately; however, due to exigent circumstances a net fifteen (15) days may be allowed with prior agreement, but must be paid-in-full before continuation or production of any services or testimony.  (4) Notwithstanding other payment provisions, if any DataChasers services have been performed but the initial retainer is not fully funded within fifteen (15) days of those initial services, this Agreement may be considered terminated by Client and any/all items or evidence, whatsoever, abandoned, and may be disposed of at DataChasers’ sole discretion, without Client notification.  (5) A late fee, at the highest rate allowed by law, may be applied monthly and added to any unpaid balance past the 15 days net.  (6) A cashier’s check or other secure payment may be required for services requested with less than ten-(10) days notice.  (7) Remuneration is based on a combination/accumulation of examination time and computer run-time; hourly charges and applicable expenses are the allocated hours/expenses per examiner. (8) A reasonable allowance for setup time is included in the imaging process; standby time will be billed at the hourly rate.  (9) Unless otherwise defined, HDD images are proprietary data files (“evidence files”) format, readable only with specific forensic software; are and remain DCI’s property; and backups are saved in this proprietary format only (i.e., copies of the “evidence files”). 
14. Returned bank items (NSF, Account Closed, etc.), see Fee Schedule.

9. BILLING & PAYMENT RESPONSIBILITY:  See Service Agreement.

10)  DataChasers® reserves the right to refuse service to anyone, or any entity, for any or no reason.

(©DataChasers® Inc., 100725)