Handwriting, as most people are aware, can be as identifying as a fingerprint.
Has the medical record been altered?
Is it the same ink? Was the same pen used? Is it an original document or a copy?
Often the Questioned Document Examiner undertakes the examination of a photocopy to determine if it is, in actuality, a photocopy manipulation or “cut & paste”
Paper examinations usually become necessary when there is some question as to whether one or more pages have been added to a multi-page document.
At first thought, the average person does not realize the scope of the words “questioned document.” One envisions a signature on a will, check, or contract. Only after careful consideration does he realize that a typewritten letter, dollar bill, postage stamp, gas station receipt, airline ticket, and even the brand on the side of a cow roaming the range can be a “questioned document.” In the broadest, all-encompassing terms, a document is any fixed method of communication between one individual and another.
Quite simply then, a questioned document is one in which a document in its entirety, or in part, is subject to question as to authenticity and/or origin.The examinations required to answer those questions may be complex, encompassing the method in …
This includes Video Spectral Comparison (VSC), Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC), and Electro-Static Detection (ESDA). Examinations involving handwriting, hand printing, and signature comparisons are available, as are alteration and obliteration recovery, indented (second page) writing retrieval, photocopy forgery detection, ink differentiation, sequence of writings, paper examinations, and typewriter/printer examination and comparison.