Burgess Forensics
Burgess Forensics is a founder-led digital forensics, data recovery, and expert witness practice founded in 1984, serving attorneys, law firms, and individuals across US federal, state, and military courts via quote-based professional services.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1984
- HeadquartersSan Luis Obispo, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Burgess Forensics does
Burgess Forensics is a privately held, founder-led digital forensics and data recovery practice established in 1984 by Steve Burgess in Santa Barbara, California. The firm provides three core services: digital forensics examination of computers, mobile devices, and storage media to recover deleted files, hidden emails, metadata, and other electronic evidence; data recovery from physically damaged (fire, flood) or logically failed hard drives, RAIDs, flash drives, and SSDs; and expert witness testimony and litigation support across Federal, State, Superior, Municipal, and Military courts. The practice leverages established commercial forensic tools (FTK Imager, EnCase, NetAnalysis, HstEx, Blade) alongside proprietary methodologies refined over four decades of examining more than 20,000 devices.
The firm's primary customer segments are law firms and attorneys handling civil and criminal litigation, criminal defense counsel, and individuals or businesses requiring data recovery. Additional work comes from government agencies, healthcare providers, and educational institutions. Distribution is entirely direct: prospective clients initiate contact via a toll-free number, email, or website quote form, receive a free consultation, and engage on a quote-based, pay-as-you-go basis. The firm invests in content marketing (blog, newsletter, books, social media) to drive attorney referrals, with Steve Burgess personally conducting examinations, authoring reports, and serving as the testifying expert.
Revenue mechanics are professional services billing tied to case complexity, device count, and expert testimony hours, with no published fee schedule. The practice operates as a sole-expert shop with 1-10 employees, has received no external funding, and maintains continuous independent ownership under Steve Burgess since founding.
Burgess Forensics firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Burgess Forensics
- Legal name
- Burgess Forensics
- Website
- https://burgessforensics.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1984
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Burgess Forensics is a founder-led digital forensics, data recovery, and expert witness practice founded in 1984, serving attorneys, law firms, and individuals across US federal, state, and military courts via quote-based professional services.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Burgess Forensics industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Digital Forensics Services
- NAICS
- Investigation and Security Services (5616)
- SIC
- Services-Detective, Guard & Armored Car Services (7381), Services-Miscellaneous Repair Services (7600)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital Forensics & Evidence Collection (Endpoint, Mobile, Cloud) (BPAKAHAC)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- eDiscovery, Litigation Support & Expert Witness Services (BPAKAHAD), Litigation Support & Expert Witness Services (BPAHALAG)
Keywords
Where Burgess Forensics is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Luis Obispo
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Burgess Forensics business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Digital Forensics Services: Professional services billed for forensic examination of digital devices, data recovery, and expert witness testimony. Revenue generated through consultation fees, examination charges, and court appearance fees. Services provided to law firms, attorneys, and individuals involved in litigation.
- Data Recovery Services: Data recovery from crashed, damaged, or corrupted storage media including hard drives, RAIDs, flash drives, and other digital storage. Recovery services for both physical damage (floods, fires) and logical failures.
- Expert Witness and Litigation Support: Court testimony, deposition appearances, and litigation support for attorneys. Services include preparing evidence, courtroom presentation, and explaining technical findings to legal professionals, judges, and juries.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Free consultation available for initial case assessment |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
Burgess Forensics product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Burgess Forensics is a private digital forensics and data recovery practice that examines computers, mobile devices, and storage media to recover deleted files, hidden emails, metadata, and other digital evidence for use in litigation. The firm also provides expert witness testimony and litigation support in Federal, State, Superior, Municipal, and Military courts, plus data recovery from physically damaged or logically failed storage devices. Services span Mac OSX, Windows, Android, iOS, and Linux environments and are delivered through direct professional engagement with attorneys, law firms, and individual clients.
Product overview
Burgess Forensics is a service-based company offering digital forensics, data recovery, and expert witness services. The company operates as a single unified service offering rather than a software platform. Their core services include digital forensics examination, data recovery from damaged or failed storage media, expert witness testimony for litigation support, and mobile device forensics. These services are delivered by a team of forensic specialists who recover deleted files, analyze metadata, extract electronic evidence, and provide courtroom testimony. The company was founded in 1984 and has examined over 20,000 devices.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Digital Forensics Services Comprehensive digital forensic examination of computers, phones, tablets, hard drives, flash drives, SD cards, SSDs, and other digital devices to recover deleted files, hidden emails, metadata, falsified dates, encrypted data, and other evidence for use in litigation. Provided to attorneys, law firms, and government clients.
- Data Recovery Services
- Expert Witness & Litigation-Support Services Expert witness testimony, deposition appearances, courtroom presentation, and evidence preparation for civil and criminal litigation in Federal, State, Superior, Municipal, and Military courts, plus California Labor Board proceedings. Provided to attorneys and law firms.
- Mobile Device Data Recovery and Forensics Specialized forensic recovery and analysis of data from mobile phones, tablets, and iPads, supporting both data recovery customers and litigation-driven evidence extraction. Provided to attorneys, law firms, and individual clients.
Quantifiable outcome
- Successfully recovered ALL data from fire-damaged laptop for school district insurance claim
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Burgess Forensics
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Burgess Forensics technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
Burgess Forensics partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators5 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Burgess Forensics competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Epiq Systems: Large legal services and e-discovery vendor with digital forensics, document review, and litigation support capabilities. Comparable buyer (attorneys and corporate legal) but operates at significantly larger scale via managed service contracts.
- Stroz Friedberg (Aon): Digital forensics, incident response, and expert witness firm owned by Aon. Comparable in offering litigation-support and expert testimony, but with a much broader cybersecurity and investigations portfolio and multi-office footprint.
- Relativity (RelativityOne): Leading e-discovery platform used by law firms and corporate legal teams to process and review electronically stored information. Adjacent to Burgess's digital evidence work — many clients of digital forensics experts rely on Relativity for downstream review.
- Kroll (Cyber and Litigation Support): Global investigations and digital forensics practice providing computer forensics, expert witness, and e-discovery services to corporations and law firms. Same litigation-support and forensics buyer overlap as Burgess, but delivered at global enterprise scale.
Direct peers
- AccessData (Exterro): Provider of FTK (Forensic Toolkit) and other digital forensics software used by examiners and law enforcement. Directly comparable on the digital forensics tooling axis, with overlapping customer base of attorneys and investigators.
- Cellebrite: Global leader in mobile device forensics and data extraction (UFED, Premium). Overlaps with Burgess's mobile forensics and phone/tablet recovery practice, but operates at enterprise scale serving law enforcement and large e-discovery buyers.
- HaystackID: Specialized digital forensics, e-discovery, and expert witness services firm serving law firms and corporate legal teams. Closely comparable to Burgess on the litigation-support and computer forensics axis, but with broader managed-service delivery.
- Magnet Forensics: Provider of digital forensics software (AXIOM, GrayKey) and services for law enforcement and corporate clients. Directly comparable as a digital forensics evidence-collection specialist serving attorneys and investigators, though at much larger scale and with a software-centric model.
- Digital Forensics Corp. Independent digital forensics and expert witness firm offering computer, mobile, and data recovery services to attorneys and individuals. Closest pure-play peer to Burgess — same service mix, similar expert-witness focus, though operating across multiple US offices.
Emerging players
- Forensic Recovery LLC: Boutique digital forensics and data recovery firm serving law firms and corporate clients. Comparable on core computer forensics and recovery service, with similar boutique positioning to Burgess though typically with broader geographic coverage.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Burgess Forensics social profiles
Digital presenceBurgess Forensics financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Burgess Forensics leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Burgess Forensics funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Burgess Forensics M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Burgess Forensics
What does Burgess Forensics do?
Burgess Forensics is a private digital forensics and data recovery practice that examines computers, mobile devices, and storage media to recover deleted files, hidden emails, metadata, and other digital evidence for use in litigation. The firm also provides expert witness testimony and litigation support in Federal, State, Superior, Municipal, and Military courts, plus data recovery from physically damaged or logically failed storage devices. Services span Mac OSX, Windows, Android, iOS, and Linux environments and are delivered through direct professional engagement with attorneys, law firms, and individual clients.
Is Burgess Forensics a public or private company?
Burgess Forensics is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Burgess Forensics founded?
Burgess Forensics was founded in 1984. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Burgess Forensics based?
Burgess Forensics is headquartered in San Luis Obispo, United States, in the North America region.
How does Burgess Forensics make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Digital Forensics Services are the primary driver. The others are data Recovery Services and expert Witness and Litigation Support.
Who are Burgess Forensics's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Epiq Systems, Stroz Friedberg (Aon), Relativity (RelativityOne) and Kroll (Cyber and Litigation Support). Direct peers are AccessData (Exterro), Cellebrite, HaystackID, Magnet Forensics and Digital Forensics Corp.. Forensic Recovery LLC is listed as an emerging player.
Does Burgess Forensics have an API?
No public API is recorded for Burgess Forensics.
What industry is Burgess Forensics in?
Burgess Forensics's product category is Digital Forensics Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAKAHAC, Digital Forensics & Evidence Collection (Endpoint, Mobile, Cloud), with a secondary code of BPAKAHAD, eDiscovery, Litigation Support & Expert Witness Services. Its NAICS code is 5616 and its SIC code is 7381.