Domain name evidence, forensics and litigation support
Domain name expert witness reference

What the domain record can be made to show

This site documents the work a domain name expert witness does: 11 kinds of forensic analysis, 12 kinds of litigation support, and 11 guides on retention, evidence and the proceedings themselves. Every entry opens with the one thing a retaining attorney needs before the prose — whether the work produces a documentary record, an analytical opinion, or a procedural exercise defined by a forum's own rules — followed by where the material comes from and what has to be obtained through legal process.

How this reference is arranged

Two categories, six disciplines, one answer-first field


Forensic analysis describes how a record is retrieved, preserved and read. Litigation support describes what a proceeding asks for and what an expert supplies to it. Both are grouped by the discipline the work belongs to, because the discipline decides where the material is held and who has to be asked for it.

Category A

Forensic Analysis

11 kinds of examination of the registration, resolution, hosting and archival record — what each one retrieves, how it is preserved, and what it cannot establish on its own.

Read the forensic entries →

Category B

Litigation Support

12 kinds of work defined by a forum: the elements a policy sets, the factors a statute enumerates, and the valuation and damages questions that follow a decision.

Read the litigation entries →

Start here

The entries attorneys reach for first


See all 23 engagement types →

Disciplines

The six disciplines everything here sits in


Registration and Historical Records

7 entries

What the registration and resolution record shows, where it is held, and what survives once it has been redacted or aged out.

Record Production Evidence Preservation Chain of Custody WHOIS History DNS History Archive Analysis Certificate Timelines

Hosting and Infrastructure

2 entries

What a domain resolved to, where it was hosted, and where its traffic went.

Redirect Forensics Hosting and IP

Attribution and Ownership

3 entries

Establishing who controlled a domain, and at what point — an inference from converging records, never a lookup.

Stolen Domains Attribution Ownership Investigation

Policy and Statutory Proceedings

7 entries

UDRP, URS and the ACPA: what each proceeding requires, and what an expert supplies to it.

ACPA Litigation Bad Faith Factors In Rem Actions UDRP Complainant UDRP Response URS RDNH Evidence

Trademark and Confusion

2 entries

Whether a domain is confusingly similar to a mark, and whether a variant was deliberate.

Confusion Analysis Typosquatting

Valuation and Damages

2 entries

What a domain was worth and what a diversion cost — stated as methodology, not as a number.

Domain Valuation Traffic Diversion

Browse by discipline →

Before a matter starts

What a retaining attorney usually wants to know


An engagement runs in a fixed order, and the order matters more than it looks: a conflict check before anything substantive is exchanged, scope agreed in writing, then preservation, because the live record moves while the scope is still being settled. That sequence is set out on the engagement process page, from the first call through availability for deposition.

Two things this site deliberately does not carry. It publishes no engagement list and no case history: the credentials page explains why, and points at hartzer.com, which is the record that is actually kept current. And it publishes no fees, rates or turnaround commitments, because those are settled with counsel rather than posted on a website. What is here instead is the work itself, described in enough detail to judge whether it fits the matter — with a note on who writes it and a contact page carrying a single email address.

Keep reading

An answer first, then the record

Nothing here is for sale and no engagement is taken through this site. Read an entry for what a kind of analysis produces, and a guide for the sequence it runs in.

A reference, not an intake page. This site describes what a domain name expert witness does and what the domain record can be made to show. It is not legal advice, nothing on it creates any relationship, and no engagement is taken through this website. The current record of credentials is at hartzer.com.

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