A Day In The Life Of A Forensic Document Examiner

Hi, this is Bart Baggett. I’m driving back from San Bernardino as I write this. Actually, I’m dictating this.

Today I went to San Bernardino to testify in a probate case where there was a handwritten will of an 80-year old woman, but in my opinion, was forged. I didn’t get to give that opinion because the opposing attorney had some very clever moves up her sleeve. Now, by clever moves I don’t mean that she was able to get me disqualified or make me look silly on the stand. She was able to not let me on the stand. After sitting for an hour while she offered a settlement to my client, she then finally asked the judge to continue the case for another month. The judge said, “Well why should I give you a continuance when the expert witness is sitting right here? It cost $1,000 to bring him back.”  She responded to the judge, “Well, you let him have a continuance last month. You owe me a continuance.” And I’ll be darned if the judge didn’t grant her a continuance, send her expert witness away, and thus I was not allowed to testify today.

The back story is that the handwritten will was one of the worst forged wills I’ve ever seen. In fact, I discovered today that the writer of the forged will was in the courtroom. Her ex-husband looked at the will and said, “I recognize my ex-wife’s handwriting. She wrote the will…not the dead lady.” Now that, combined with my testimony, would have been quite strong if, of course, I was able to take the stand.

The one reason my client might decide to settle without calling me back is that he is not an attorney. He could not afford an attorney, and since it’s a civil case the state doesn’t give him one. So out of his own pocket he’s paid my company over $1,800 so far to prove the will is forged…which it is…and he risked the prejudice of the court ruling against him because he may not know the protocol to get an expert witness accepted, get evidence into admission, or even function normally in a trial. If you are an aspiring expert witness, realize that if your client is a pro se attorney, you are risking your credentials unless you are very experienced on the witness stand. I actually watched a seasoned, veteran expert witness get slaughtered because the pro se attorney was unable to ask basic questions such as, “What do you do?” … “Tell me how your training occurred.”… And “Why do you consider yourself an expert?” He was unable to articulate those questions and thus the expert was severely discredited because the pro se attorney was so inarticulate.

One of the things that you also need to be wary of with any testimony–especially expert witness testimony with a pro se attorney– is the Federal Rules of Evidence. You might want to familiarize yourself with the Federal Rules of Evidence 702 through 705 which talk about the admissibility of evidence that the expert witness relies on. In general, they give wide discretion on the judge allowing evidence into the court if the expert witness relies on that evidence. The problem is:  If the evidence is “inadmissible” in another area, such as ‘the gun was found in the apartment but the search warrant wasn’t properly executed, so the gun is inadmissible’, but the opinion of an expert relies on the gun, the judge still may have that expert testify as to his opinion, but he may choose not to allow him to talk about the gun, because the jury would be tainted. So there’s a lot of room in the world of evidence for that.

In the case of expert witness, if you relied on the document to bring into the courtroom, you may have to produce that document a week ahead of the trial. Then, if you fail to produce that document on time for the opposing attorney to inspect, the judge may decide not to let you talk or render an opinion on it. Now, this is not common, but it has happened to me. When I went to court three weeks ago, the exhibits that I prepared were not allowed into evidence because the opposing attorney said he didn’t get them the night before. That’s silly, since that’s usually when I make my exhibits…the night before. But once in a while at trials, the exhibits aren’t allowed because the attorney didn’t follow the proper protocol. So as an expert witness you’ve got to be very wary of these things going wrong, and if you have a pro se client you have to do extra-careful mentoring to make sure he has the right questions.

In this case we actually sent our pro se client an e-mail, listing questions for him to ask: What is your name? What is your career? What do you do? How did you get trained? What are your credentials? Have you been on TV?   This list of questions was  in sequence for him so that he wouldn’t get up there and get tongue-tied. Unfortunately, he never got to ask those questions because the continuance was granted. So if he calls me back on the witness stand in a month, he would have to pay another $1,000.

To make the long story a little bit longer, or at least to wrap up this trial, the nice man who spent money because the caregiver of his sister decided to fake a will, will probably end up getting what is rightfully his. He’ll get the house, and he’ll get the car, and he’ll get other material items. The attorney showed up today with a settlement agreement which essentially admitted that they are willing to exclude the will. They didn’t admit to forging it, but they agreed to excluding it. Of course, the estate would go back to the will on file which was properly prepared and executed at an attorney’s office in 2004. Of course, that is fair, but in negotiations the caregiver, or the woman living with the decedent, wants the two dogs, the dishwasher, the couch, a lamp and all her clothes.  Really, all her clothes and the two dogs!!!  That is what they are negotiating and settling in the judge’s chambers at the courthouse as I speak.  Forensicdoc Exam School 

So in conclusion, the life of this expert document examiner is very interesting. Sometimes it’s sad to see a woman that handwrites a will and signs a dead woman’s name to not get prosecuted for perjuryor forgery, and walks away with the two dogs…. but so is life.

“I totally recommend the International School of FDE  to anyone who wants a new career in the field of forensic document examination.” Training in document examination

— Topanga Bird

original content taken from this site: https://forensicdocexamschool.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-forensic-document-examiner-april-18-2011/

Forensic Document Examination- A Way Towards The Clear Perception of The Writing

Forensic document examination is about the amalgamation of various principles and concepts progressively used for some decades. It is developed by different technology and techniques of the 21st century. Signatures and paper handwritten documents with ink are still the very common way most businesses are transacted in the era of electro-communication.

Some fields in which one can use learn forensic document examination:

Domestic disputes

Criminal and civil legal cases

Ventures

As well as controversies difficulties on the alleged irregularities in checks, wills, deeds, contracts, policies, as well as other documents in question.

Duties of a Forensic document examiner:

A forensic document examiner analyzes and examines all aspects of a paper document to check the authenticity and its origin. In this commercial printing, handwriting, typewriting, inks, papers, and photocopies are included.

The forensic document examiners look for clues keeping the clues pointing like additions, substitutions, deletions, alterations in forgery. They are developed by implementing and pinpointing some dissimilar attributes.

All the Medical records, income tax records, deeds, time-sheets, wills, loan agreements, checks, election petition, and letter without any checks authors are checked by examiner.

Initially, while studying a document the forensic document examiner tries to find for a valid second document that looks like the original copy. It will in terms of the case, style, and print.

The closer looks the second document has with the first, the more likely that will have satisfactory in the examination.

Educational Needs:

There is no college degree for establishing as a forensic document examiner. It is necessary that the person must have completed a master's degree or undergraduate bachelor's degree.

One can get a degree from some state, regional as well as national forensic science institutions and agencies need at least a baccalaureate degree.

Why the Forensic Handwriting Comparison Examination is necessary:

When a crime scene investigator checks some document that is a section of crime, a forensic handwriting analyst will determine if the writing will be consistent with an individual who is suspected of writing it. They can also check whether it is real writing or forgery.

The handwriting will need several standard or handwriting samples as it will be known. It will be in order to achieve some intuition or insight into the individual's writing style. It will help in getting the certainty that the person is questionable or not.

Sometimes using the instrument and under different events makes the matter worse. Therefore, it is essential to make a comparison of a questioned document to a familiar writing sample or another document that may be impossibility.

It is good to use standard handwriting sample, even authentic one. The forensic examiner will ask the suspected candidate to provide writing samples while employing a pencil, paper, and pen that will be similar to the questioned paper.

It is a universal truth that handwriting styles change with the passing of time and throughout the lives. Therefore, getting a document written originally is a critical task for a forensic writing expert.

Become a Certified Forensic Document Examiner through this online training and in person apprenticeship program. Get trained in all areas of forensic handwriting analysis, document examination, forgery detection, signature analysis, testimony, and building a business in any city in the world.

Forensic document examination is about the amalgamation of various principles and concepts progressively used for some decades. It is developed by different technology and techniques of the 21st century. Signatures and paper handwritten documents with ink are still the very common way most businesses are transacted in the era of electro-communication.

Original content taken form this site: https://www.sooperarticles.com/education-articles/certification-articles/forensic-document-examination-way-towards-clear-perception-writing-1758665.html

Forensic Document Examiners Dispute Subject of Libel Suit

An accredited forensic document examiners’ association has filed a libel suit over a law journal article which it says defamed its members’ professionalism.

The lawsuit underscores a long-running competition between two small and specialized groups: the Board of Forensic Document Examiners (BFDE) and the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners (ABFDE).

The subject of the libel lawsuit, transferred this month to Chicago, is a single article that appeared last summer. Titled “Forensic Handwriting Comparison Examination in the Courtroom,” it was published in August 2015 in The Judges’ Journal, a publication of the American Bar Association, one of the defendants.

The article was written by Thomas Vastrick, a Florida-based document examiner who is a member of the ABFDE.

The BFDE and its members allege in their suit that the article attempts to discredit their organization in the eyes of the readership, many of whom are judges that function as evidentiary gatekeepers under Daubert and other case law.

The BFDE and ABFDE are in open competition.

Both groups were accredited by the Forensic Specialties Accreditation Board (FSAB) about a decade ago.

But there are distinct differences: the BFDE is much smaller, having 14 certified “diplomates,” the majority of which have been trained and work in the private sector. The ABFDE, on the other hand, has 150 “diplomates,” most of which have been trained and worked in the governmental sphere.

The litigation, which was initially filed in August, alleges that Vastrick erroneously touted the ABFDE as the “only certification board recognized by the broader forensic science community,” and intended to cast aspersions on the BFDE training model.

“The language used in the Vastrick Article evidences an aggressive marketing strategy directed at existing and potential customers of FDE services that is designed to drive the BFDE as well as the individual BFDE Diplomates out of the relevant marketplace by means of false and deceptive commercial advertising,” the lawsuit argues. Forensicdoc Exam School 

“Under the guise of offering tools to be used by trial judges in evaluating the expertise of a proffered expert in forensic document examination, (the article) makes numerous false and misleading factual statement regarding how to differentiate between ‘true professionals’ and ‘unqualified’ or ‘lesser qualified’ practitioners,” the suit adds.

Vastrick declined comment, and pointed toward an attorney on the matter.