Lesson II

Classes of Questioned Documents

Documents are questioned, disputed, and attacked on many grounds and for various reasons but
the great majority of questioned papers are included in the following classes:

I- DOCUMENTS WITH QUESTIONED SIGNATURES

The most common disputed document is the signature and may be any commercial or legal paper,
Such as check, note, receipt, draft, order, contract, agreement, assignment, will, deed, or similar document,
the signature of which is under suspicion. In this class are found the traced forgery, spurious forgery and
the forgery produced by simulating or copying process. In disputed documents the signature only may at
first be suspected but many different things may eventually show the fraudulent character of the instrument,
and, as already pointed out, everything about it that in any way may throw light on the subject should be
promptly investigated.

At first view the signature should be critically examined and compared with genuine signatures but
neither at this time later should any writings be used for comparison, by those who are to testify, that
cannot be legally proved as standards of comparison. In this preliminary examination it is necessary to
determine whether the writing in question shows the absence of divergent writing characteristics and the
presence of the genuine writing habits and characteristics of the alleged writer to a sufficient extent to
warrant the conclusion that the writing is genuine; or whether the absence of a sufficient number of
characteristics of genuineness and the presence of the divergent characteristics lead to the conclusion that
the writing is not genuine.
As stated above, this preliminary examination should never be made hastily, and judgment should
be preserved until every phase of the examination is completed. It is desirable in many instances to make
the examination at two settings with some time intervening, that the steps may be carefully reviewed when
the mind and vision are unwearied.
The color and character of the ink of a questioned signature should on first view always be
carefully observed under suitable magnification and compared with the ink on all parts of the documents
and, if condition warrant it, with standard inks of the alleged age of the document. If the ink is fresher than
the age of the document would seem to warrant, a careful color reading of it should be made and recorded.

Not infrequently the attempt is made to hide the evidence of forgery in a fraudulent document by
some alleged accident by which the paper is partially defaced or torn, or it may have been deliberately
crumpled, soiled, or discolored to make it more difficult to show its real character. Any unusual condition in
a document is an additional reason why it should be subjected to an even more rigid examination than
would otherwise be given it.

Another question which it is sometimes necessary to investigate in any signature inquiry is whether
it is possible the writer had under command two styles of signature, one a conventional body-writing style
and the other an individualized, distinctive check signature. There are writers who write a signature in a
manner quite divergent from their general writing and when a writer of this class writes his signature in his
body-writing style, especially with the given name spelled out which he usually writes as an initial, it may be
sufficiently divergent from his usual signatures so that with only the initialed signatures for comparison it
may be difficult to say whether or not it is genuine. With only usual standard signatures for comparison, it
may not be possible to say positively that the handwriting is genuine.

In an investigation of signatures written in unusual form it is desirable, if not necessary, to have for
standards of comparison not only signatures but extended writing of other classes. With ample standard
writings of various classes, it is usually possible to determine whether such an unusual signature is or is not
genuine. As already stated, however, with certain writers it is very difficult if not impossible to reach a
definite conclusion with only usual signatures for comparison. The careful examiner will require that every
available standard writing be supplied before a definite opinion is given.

II. DOCUMENTS CONTAINING ALLEGED FRAUDULENT ALTERATIONS

In the second class are included all documents in which it is alleged some alteration was made by
erasure, addition, interlineation, or substitution. In connection with these documents, questions may arise
as to the order or sequence of writing as shown by crossed lines, age and continuity of writing, erasures
and changes, identity of ink, identity of pen and pen condition, self-consciousness or unusual care in
writing, and the question may arise whether writing preceded or followed the folding of the paper. This
important class of questioned documents also includes all varieties of “raised” checks, drafts, and notes, as
well as fraudulent interlineations in contracts, deeds, will and other legal papers.

III. HOLOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTS QUESTIONED OR DISPUTED

The third class of suspected papers comprises those in which the writing of entire written
documents is all questioned. These complete documents, fraudulent, are usually vulnerable in many
possible particulars and should be subjected to the most searching scrutiny including consideration of
paper, watermarks, ink, pens, style or system of writing, natural variation, or variety of form in writing,
continuity of writing, slant, spacing and shading of writing, wording, subject matter, seals, folding, and
ruling.

Tickets of many kinds are frequently forged or counterfeited, also rare stamps, valuable
manuscripts, certificates, letters of introduction and recommendation, letters of credit, diplomas,
marriage certificate, marriage contracts, court papers, book plates, and especially autographs and
letters of famous people, and commissions, discharges, and many other kinds of documents.

IV. DOCUMENTS ATTACKED ON THE QUESTION OF THEIR AGE OR DATE

The fourth class of questioned documents includes those in which the age of an instrument or the
age of some part of it is investigated, or a document in which the comparative age of different parts
may have some bearing on the question of its genuineness. Interesting papers of this class are often
brought forward which purport to be ancient documents of great importance, and which is usually
claimed were found on some strange place or under peculiar conditions, and these circumstances are,
as a rule, minutely detailed. These stories often are surprisingly alike in many ways and alone often are
sufficient to arouse a strong suspicion that the document is not genuine.

V. DOCUMENTS ATTACKED ON THE QUESTION OF MATERIALS USED IN THEIR

PRODUCTION.
 Documents have frequently been shown to be false because they were dated many years before
Paper was made on which they were written, and this is only one illustration of the fifth class of
questioned documents, or those shown to be fraudulent through the material used. A recent disputed
paper dated 1942 had a dry seal after the signature the design of which was not made till 1946. Other
matters for investigation under this head are type printed forms; lithographed forms; typewriting;
envelopes; stamps; contents, or any tangible thing that has a date value.

VI. DOCUMENTS INVESTIGATED ON THE QUESTION OF TYPEWRITING

a). With a view of ascertaining their source
b). With a view to determining their date
c). With a view of determining whether they contain fraudulent alteration or substituted pages.

VII. DOCUMENTS OR WRITINGS INVESTIGATED BECAUSE IT IS ALLEGED THAT THEY

IDENTIFY SOME PERSON THROUGH HANDWRITING.

The seventh class of questioned documents are of great variety and of all disputed papers they are
perhaps most frequently brought under investigation. This class includes all documents, papers, and
writings or instruments which by their handwriting and contents tend to identify some person. The most
common documents of this class are all kinds of anonymous and disputed letters. These may be
ordinary letters offered as evidence, but usually are abusive, warning, obscene, or scurrilous
communications, or any of the great variety of blackmailing, black-hand and threatening letters which so
frequently become the object of legal inquiry.

VIII. GENUINE DOCUMENTS ERRONEOUSLY OR FRAUDULENTLY ATTACKED.

It will be seen considering these various classes of disputed papers that there are two.
(2) related but quiet distinct questions regarding handwriting. The first question is whether certain.
writing is genuine or forged. In such a case the writing is usually denied by the writer, or those who
represent him, and the question to be determined is whether it is genuine writing, an imitation of
genuine
writing, or wholly different writing. The second handwriting question in these inquiries, is whether a
certain writing will serve to identify the writer. A writing of this class maybe and usually is disguised.
If it appears to be disguised, then the question is whether the writer thus attempted to hide his
personality.
and failed to do so, or is the writing not disguised and the writing of another person? In this class
included disguised anonymous letters and ordinary letters and papers offered as evidence that by their
writing serve as a means of identification.

In disguised writing the effort of the writer is directed to the exclusion of personal writing
characteristics by the adoption of characteristics foreign to his own writing. The problem in the examination
of writing of this class is to discover and weigh against each other, as evidence for or against identity,
involuntary and unconscious genuine characteristics and voluntary adopted or foreign characteristics.

A writing that is simply disguised, as usually the case in anonymous letters, is one in which the
writer seeks only to hide his own personality without assuming that of any other person. It is reasonable to
expect a simulated writing will resemble in one degree the writing it seeks to imitate, and it is equally
apparent that a disguised writing will differ in some measure from the usual writing of one who thus
attempts to his own personality.

The simple question sometimes arises whether a complete letter or other document containing
considerable matter, which is undistinguished and written rapidly and freely, is in the actual handwriting of a
certain writing of a similar character. In an inquiry of this kind, it is simply necessary to determine to what
extent all the variable characteristics and habits of two natural and undisguised handwritings will
accidentally coincide. With sufficient disputed and standard writing of this class by the same writer, proof of
identity in a case of this kind often reaches such a degree of certainty that it leads to confession or
disappearance of the writer.
In any considerable quantity of writing, it is usually possible to discover and show clearly whether
writing is natural and free or whether it is unnatural and feigned. A feigned hand like a simulated document,
is almost certain to be inconsistent with itself in certain significant features or qualities and will not be free
and rapid. If a writing of this class is free and rapid it will almost certainly show, when carefully analyzed,
many of the characteristics of the natural writing of the writer.