Question 1

What advice can you provide before I submit a case?

Accepted Answer

I can provide an initial assessment to establish whether an appropriate examination can be undertaken based on the documents available.   I will provide advice regarding suitability of your documents and what I require in terms of comparison material.   No indication of the outcome of the full examination will be given at this pre-assessment stage.

Question 2

What does peer-review mean?

Accepted Answer

As an experienced document examiner, I believe that my assessments will withstand scrutiny in a court of law. However, to provide even greater surety to my clients, appropriate peer review of my findings will be conducted as part of the examination. Such peer review is carried out by a fellow experienced document examiner who has completed the necesssary training. I believe peer-review can be an important part of the examination process and ensures my clients have complete confidence in the content of the report that they receive.

Question 3

What is a court-compliant report?

Accepted Answer

Where it is intended that reports will be used as evidence in court, my reports will contain all of the necessary declarations and clauses that ensure compliance with current court submission procedures. For Civil cases, reports will be compliant with Part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules.

Question 4

How do I submit a case?

Accepted Answer

Please see the Case Submission page. If you are sending original documents for examination, I recommend using Royal Mail Special Delivery post to ensure full tracking. Please provide the tracking reference once the documents have been posted.

Question 5

Forensic Document Examiner or Graphologist?

Accepted Answer

A forensic document examiner provides an opinion regarding the authenticity or authorship of signatures and handwriting. This is based on scientific principles and involves the detailed examination and comparison of the characteristics of handwriting and signatures. Training to be a forensic document examiner requires a scientific degree and an apprenticeship, following a structured course, taking at least two years. Graphology claims to determine physical characteristics and attributes of personality from handwriting and signatures. Many graphological organisations offer correspondence courses that can be completed within a few months.

Question 6

Will my documents be damaged?

Accepted Answer

All examinations are non-destructive, so your documents will not be altered or damaged whilst in my possession.

Question 7

Can you date documents?

Accepted Answer

It is not usually possible to determine accurately the date that a document was produced.   Sometimes indirect methods may provide an indication of the approximate date (for example the presence of a watermark or use of a particular typeface).   I cannot detemine the age of ink entries; I may be able to provide details of international experts who can conduct such examinations.

Question 8

What is your Range of Opinions?

Accepted Answer

Handwriting and signature cases will be reported using a scale of opinions, in line with similar scales used by forensic document examiners in the UK and worldwide. I use the 9-point scale below, ranging between positive, inconclusive and negative opinions. This scale is effective from 13 June 2021. Conclusive evidence - identification of one individual to the exclusion of all others Very strong evidence - most unlikely that any other individual was responsible Strong evidence - unlikely that any other individual was responsible Limited evidence - on the balance of probabilities it is likely that the individual was responsible but alternative explanations cannot be excluded Inconclusive - cannot determine whether or not the individual was responsible Limited evidence - on the balance of probabilities it is likely that the individual was not responsible but but alternative explanations cannot be excluded Strong evidence - unlikely that the individual was responsible Very strong evidence - most unlikely that the individual was responsible Conclusive evidence - the individual can be eliminated as being the writer

Question 9

Can I pay for a letter of opinion instead of a report?

Accepted Answer

In order to provide a reliable opinion, I always carry out a full examination and assess the significance of the findings based on my experience.   All results are provided in a report, with images where considered useful, and the report includes any necessary declarations for use in court. On rare occasions it may be possible to provide a brief summary of the findings, but this must be discussed prior to instructions being agreed.

Question 10

Can you guarantee to confirm that a signature is/is not genuine?

Accepted Answer

No. It is not possible to predict the outcome of a case, even if documents are provided for an initial assessment.   Unfortunately there are occasions when it is not possible to determine whether or not a signature is genuine. This could be due to the quality of the documents available, the number of known documents provided, the variation within a signature and the complexity of the signature. In such cases the evidence may be inconclusive.

Question 11

What does the term "QD" mean in QD Examiner?"

Accepted Answer

QD is an abbreviation for "questioned document". A questioned document can be any handwriting, signature, printed material or mark whose authenticity is in dispute.   A QD Examiner is an expert in the examination of Questioned Documents, and is commonly known as a Forensic Document Examiner.