Court qualified expert witness

First, I am court qualified to testify as an expert witness in the field of forensic document examination and handwriting. However, it is very rare that I am called on to appear in court.

The reason is simple. My reports are so overwhelmingly conclusive because they're specifically designed to be "cross examination" proof. Over 90% of my cases are dismissed by the opposition because of my reports.

"Cross examination proof" reports

This means my reports are specifically designed to be overwhelmingly conclusive and leave no ambiguity or doubt as to its accuracy. This enables your case to often settle without a long, arduous court battle.

However if your case does go to trial, my reports and conclusions leave nothing for an opposing expert or counsel to challenge.

Simulated and spurious freehand forgeries

There are many types of forgeries. Most occur with the signature. The most common is a freehand forgery.

Basically, there are two types of freehand signature forgeries. The first is a simulated one. In this type, the forgerer attempts to emulate the victim's signature as closely as possible. The other type is a spurious forgery. In this case, the forger makes no attempt at simulating the signature.

Traced forgeries

Sometimes, forgers will have a "model" signature. A model is an authentic signature, either an original or a copy.

In this scenario, the forger takes the model places it underneath the document to be forged called the Qdoc, short for questioned document. The forger can see the model signature through the Qdoc and literally traces the signature.

This, you would think would pose impossibilities to discover this type of forgery. Right? Wrong. There are innate problems with tracing that betray the signature as a forgery even though the letter formations can often appear identical. Speed, rhythm, pressure pattern, and line quality are attributes that cannot be forged.

Tape forgeries

Another type of forgery also uses a "model" signature. It's a rare type called tape forgery. The forger takes the model signature and literally lifts it off the original document with tape. Then he/she tapes the signature onto the forged document, known as the Qdoc for questioned document. Why do this?

Disguised writing

Even though it's extremely rare that I will need to appear at court, [See the answer to question 1 above] I often will have the court order prepared handwriting exemplars of the suspect forger.

Certainly, you can be assured if the suspect has committed the forgery, he/she will disguise his/her handwriting when preparing these exemplars. This is a problem for many examiners, but not me.

There are handwriting traits which will still sift through. This is when it takes my keen eye to identify. In fact, this was the problem for the document examiners in the Zodiac case.

Aged-distortion handwriting

Since many forgeries occur over wills, I often must analyze the handwriting of elderly people whose handwriting is distorted due to age and/or other physical disabilities. Because of the distortion, forgers feel these signatures are easy to forge, and hard to prove otherwise. Wrong!

Although these cases pose problems, they are solvable. Solving this type of forgery is included in my resume.

"Cut and paste" forgeries

"Cut and paste" is the second most common type of forgery. In this scenario, the forger "cuts" an authentic signature from another document, and "pastes" it onto the questioned document, the Qdoc. This seems like it would be impossible to detect. Not so.

"Cut and paste" documents often leaves telltale signs of forgery such as misaligned guidelines, letter and line spacing. Enlarging the documents and measuring in fine increments of 1/500" is usually sufficient to detect these subtle differences caused by injecting the signature onto the Qdoc.

Typewriter forgeries

With the advent of personal computers, typewriters are archaic. So is the forgeries involving them. However, ancient documents crop up occasionally and I'm called on to examine a typewritten document.

Typewriters all have their own idiosyncrasies just like handwriting. Letters can be slanted or twisted, dip below or above the baseline, and will have chipped letters and defects from usage. Therefore, I can determine if different typewriters were used on one document, thus proving forgery.

Carriage lines, margins, and baselines are all measured to ensure the document was not altered in some manner.

Handwriting analysis

I'm often requested to perform a handwriting analysis for the purpose of determining the personality and character traits of the writer. This science is called graphology.

Usually the purpose is for compatibility with romantic relationships, employment screening, and self-awareness.

Annonymous and ransom notes, suicidal and homicidal cases

Occasionally, I'll have a call to anaylze a letter to determine the potential danger of the writer. These letters or notes are either anonymous threats, ransom notes, suicidal or homicidal writings.

Through the science of graphology [identifying personality and character traits in handwriting] I can identify the level of hostility, the criminality, the emotional instability of the writer, and whether the writer will actually act on his/her threat.

As example, people like Kurt Cobain and the Columbine students all exhibited classic handwriting traits of suicidal and homicidal tendencies long before they acted on them.