How the firm handles your matter, your data, and your privacy.

§1Publication privacy

The Filed Record is published as a static web site on Cloudflare Workers Static Assets. The publication carries no advertising, no third-party tracking pixels, no analytics service (Google Analytics, Plausible, or otherwise), and no embedded social-media widgets. The only request your browser makes when reading this publication is to the publication’s own host (electrician-forensic-erie.ampifex.xyz) and to the Google Fonts CDN for the three faces the publication uses; the latter is subject to Google’s own privacy practices and is the publication’s sole external dependency.

Cloudflare’s edge servers retain operational access logs for a finite window (currently 30 days for free-tier accounts, 7 days for paid) as part of standard CDN operations. These logs contain IP address, user-agent, requested URL, and response code; they are not aggregated, profiled, or sold by the firm and are not analyzed by the firm except in response to suspected denial-of-service events. The firm does not have a Google Analytics property or similar account against this domain.

§2Client matter data

Client matter data — engagement letters, intake forms, sealed PE reports, sub-laboratory results, photographic exhibits, raw instrument data files, and any other documentation produced under a retained engagement — is stored on the firm’s internal NAS at Bay 4, behind the firm’s firewalled local network, with daily encrypted backup to a mirrored offsite NAS at a private storage facility in Millcreek Township. All client matter data is encrypted at rest with AES-256 keys held only by the firm’s principals; the backup transit is encrypted via TLS 1.3.

Access to client matter data within the firm is logged. PE-sealed engineers on a matter and the firm’s designated paralegal (one employee, whose access is logged) are the only persons with access; the firm’s EITs and any contracted support staff do not have read access to sealed report drafts on matters they are not formally working on.

Client matter data is retained for ten years from the date of last filing on the matter. The ten-year window aligns with Pennsylvania’s statute of repose for construction-defect claims (42 Pa C.S. §5536) plus a margin. After the ten-year window the retaining party is notified of pending destruction; if the retaining party does not respond with consent or with a request for continued retention within 90 days, the data is destroyed under documented procedure and the destruction logged in the firm’s permanent records.

§3Physical evidence retention

Physical evidence — failed motor windings, sectioned conductor samples, recovered switchgear components, salvaged PPE garments, retained lay-in lugs, glove residue samples — is stored in the firm’s fire-rated evidence vault at Bay 4 under continuous chain of custody. Access to the vault is restricted to PE-sealed engineers and the designated paralegal; entries and exits are logged with timestamp and item-by-item itemization.

Each physical exhibit is double-bagged in serialized evidence sleeves, sealed with serialized tape, and signed across the seal by the engineer and a witness at the time of retention (per ASTM E1188-23). Photographic and SHA-256 hash records document the seal’s state at intake and at every subsequent access. Where evidence is transferred to a third-party laboratory for analysis, the chain-of-custody form is opened at the moment of transfer and the receiving lab’s signature is appended to the matter file.

Physical evidence is retained for ten years from the date of last filing on the matter, identical to the client data retention period. After the ten-year window the retaining party is contacted for disposition instructions; in the absence of a response within 90 days, the evidence is destroyed under ASTM E1492-11 and the destruction logged.

§4Conflict-check practice

At intake, the firm runs the proposed engagement against the ten-year client matter database. The check examines: the retaining party against the firm’s prior retaining parties (a previous opposing-side retainer on the same defendant is a conflict); the loss location against prior loss locations (a previous matter on the same property is presumptive grounds for further inquiry); the opposing party if known against the firm’s prior retaining parties (the most common conflict pattern); and the involved equipment manufacturer against prior matters where the firm has filed findings against that manufacturer or in their favor (relevant for subrogation matters where the manufacturer is a downstream party).

The conflict check is binding and final. If a conflict is identified, the firm declines the matter and provides a referral. The decision is not waivable; we have never accepted a matter on conflict waiver and we do not intend to. This is on the strength of NSPE Code of Ethics §III.4 and on the practical observation that conflict waivers are an invitation to subsequent collateral attack.

§5Contact & intake data

The Engagement intake form at /engage/ is not currently wired to a back-end. Submission via the form’s POST is captured by the static-asset hosting and not delivered anywhere. The form’s purpose on this page is documentary — it preserves the questions the firm will ask at intake — and counsel intending to file should use the telephone or email channels named in the firm’s address card.

If the firm receives an email at filed@presqueisle-pfe.example, the email is treated as a confidential business communication and is not redistributed beyond the firm’s principals and designated paralegal. The firm does not maintain a mailing list, does not solicit subscriptions, and does not retain contact details from email inquiries that do not result in an opened matter beyond a working window of approximately six months.

This privacy notice may be revised; revisions are dated at the top of the page and prior versions are retained in the firm’s internal archive for ten years. Substantive revisions (changes to retention periods, to access controls, to publication-side data collection) will be announced in the issue of The Filed Record that follows the revision; minor edits will be silent.

§6References