Attend this seminar to earn credits to renew your SAFE membership for 2024 and renew your CFDE certification.

Speaker: Mr. Mike Wakshull

Mike Wakshull, vice president of SAFE, is a state and federal court-qualified forensic document examiner located in Temecula, CA. He applies his science education and training to partner with legal clients to dissect evidence presented in handwritten and computer-generated questioned documents. He has worked on cases from 28 states and 5 countries.

High quality results are presented to his clients using digital and optical microscopes, video spectral comparator (VSC80), electrostatic detection devices (ESDA), Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, NEGA software, high grade digital scanners, a large research library, and more.

Mike authored three books on the topic of forensic document examination. Mike has presented at international forensics conferences, California Lawyers Association, and California District Attorneys Association, and others.

Topic: Examination of altered documents

Abstract

Forensic document examiners are often retained to determine whether a document has been altered. Alterations are made in many ways. The person making the alteration believes they are clever enough to avoid detection. Usually they leave traces of their misdeeds behind. This presentation offers an overview to attorneys to different types of alterations encountered by document examiners and methods of detecting the alterations.

• Altered documents deeds filed with the county recorder
• Alteration of a mortgage document
• Is the PDF document legitimate
• Tools used by forensic document examiners to look for alterations
• Alteration of Computer generated documents
• Why must the document examiner be able to distinguish computer generated documents?
• Discovery of cut-and-paste signatures
• Alteration of medical records
• Alteration of email
• Is the Word document as purported?
• Examining signatures written on digital tablets