Forensic Document Examination

Forensic Document Examination

To determine the truth regarding the authenticity of questioned documents, forensic document examiners follow generally accepted methods. These methods result in detecting whether a document has been altered or whether the handwriting was written by the person who allegedly authored the writing.

The basic rule for the identification of handwriting states that there must be sufficient similarities between the questioned writing and known writing (exemplars) of the person and no significant unexplained differences.  Handwriting identification is a two-step process. The first step is determining whether the exemplars were written by the same person. The second step is determining whether the questioned writing was written by the writer of the exemplars.