Rebuttal IT expert reports: when you need one and what gets reviewed
When the other side submits an IT expert report, simply disagreeing is not enough: you need technical arguments showing where it fails. That is the purpose of a rebuttal report.
Recurring errors
- Poorly obtained evidence: no forensic image, no hash, no record and no chain of custody.
- Conclusions not supported by the data: a mere possibility presented as fact.
- Confused technical concepts chained together as cause and effect when they are not.
- Superficial analysis: screenshots or visual checks without testing how the system actually works.
- Lack of reproducibility: another expert could not reach the same result from the information given.
What a rebuttal report does
- Reviews the methodology and documentation of the opposing report.
- Checks each claim against the available evidence.
- Where possible, carries out its own checks on the devices or systems.
- Explains clearly to the judge why the opposing conclusions do not hold.
When to commission one
As early as possible, ideally on receiving the opposing report and before the hearing, so there is time to access the evidence and prepare the technical defence.