Types of Questioned Documents in Forensic Examination

Any writing surface that contains visible, partially visible, or invisible writing strokes or matter and meaning is referred to as a document. Most documents are ordinary documents until and unless there is a dispute or question about the origin or authenticity of the document. Then the document might be called into question. The document in dispute, at this point, would need to be examined by one trained forensic document examiner for determining the facts about it. Commonly the document cases are found in cases like tax and medical documents, real estate agreements, employment contracts, and wills. Questioned document examinations are typically involved in forgery cases, white-collar crimes, medical malpractices, and anonymous letters. Let’s have a look at the types of questioned documents.

Table Of Content

  1. Forensic Documents Are Classified Into Two Categories
  2. Sub-types of Questioned Documents
  3. Common Types of Questioned Documents
  4. Conclusion

Forensic Documents Are Classified Into Two Categories:

  1. Standard Documents
  2. Disputed documents or suspected documents, or questioned documents 

The standard documents are referred to as the documents having a known origin and can be subdivided into two more categories:

  1. Sample signature/writings or specimens obtained by the I.O.(Input/Output) from the accused or suspect before the court or in the presence of the witness.
  2. Undeniably genuine signatures or writings are the normal writings that are on paper by the suspect in the routine sequence of the professional.

Questioned or disputed documents are of unknown origin and are under scrutiny. These are included further in the following classes:

  • Question of materials from where documents are produced 
  • Questioned or disputed age of dates in the documents 
  • Questioned Holograph documents 
  • Documents that contain alleged fraudulent alterations 
  • Document with questioned signature

Following Are the Sub-types of Questioned Documents:

1. Documents having questioned signatures:

  • These are the most common types of questioned documents which may be legal or commercial papers such as deed, will, assignment, agreement, contract, draft order, receipt, notes, cheques, etc. 
  • Generally, the signatures are obtained by stimulating or copying, or tracing the process
  • Apart from writing characteristics, it is also very important to get an ink examination

2. Documents that contain alleged fraudulent alterations

The alterations are made by 

    • Additions 
    • Erasures- Mechanical or chemical 
    • Substitution or interlineations 
    • Stokes sequence is required to be examined in these cases

3. Questioned Holograph documents

  • These can include letters from famous people, letters of credit, letters of recommendation or introduction, certificates, valuable manuscripts, rare stamps, etc. 
  • Scrutiny includes an examination of watermarks or paper, folds, seal impressions, writing, ink, etc. 

4. Questioned or disputed age of dates in the documents

  • These kinds of documents are supposed to be ancient documents of great significance.
  • Origin of paper or use of instruments for writing is very crucial for examination.

5. Question of materials from where the documents are produced

  • This category includes documents that are dated several years before the paper was made (or when the document’s relative age is needed to be decided) 

6. The Questioned Documents that include (ascertaining the date, source, substitution, or alteration of pages) of the typewriting

7. Documents with questioned handwriting comprise:

  • Registrations, subscriptions, and other miscellaneous writings 
  • Anonymous and suicidal notes and disputed letters

8. Genuine documents fraudulently or erroneously attacked

When purposefully or by mistake unknowingly, the writer writes more than just one pattern of signatures, or maybe some of the characters in the writing of a document can be erroneously treated as questioned documents. 

Bank Documents

  • Fixed Deposit/Time Deposit Receipts 
  • Bank Securities 
  • Bonds 
  • Share Certificates 
  • Specimen signature cards 
  • Account opening forms 
  • Gift cheques, cheques, drafts

Postal Documents

  • Revenue Stamps/Postal Stamps 
  • Inland Letters/Envelopes 
  • Cheques and money order forms 
  • Time Deposit/Fixed Deposit Receipts 
  • Kisan Vikas Patra, National Savings Certificate, and Indira Vikas Patra

Educational Documents

  • Migration/registration certificates 
  • Answer sheets/question papers of important competitive examinations 
  • Date of Birth Certificates 
  • Transfer Certificates 
  • Mark sheets 
  • Diploma/Degree certificates

Court Documents

  • Important judgments of apex courts 
  • Non-Judicial/Judicial Stamp papers 
  • Release orders 
  • Bail orders

Police Documents

  • Non-cognizable report formats 
  • First Information report formats 
  • Security Passes 
  • I-Cards 
  • Firearm licenses 
  • Driving licenses 
  • Vehicle registration certificates

Government Documents

  • Insurance Policies 
  • Air tickets/Railway tickets 
  • Cash books 
  • ACR formats 
  • Service Books 
  • Recommendations 
  • Reports/Expert reports/Postmortem reports/Inspection Reports 
  • Memorandum of Understanding 
  • Important agreements

The division of Questioned Documents deals with the examination of-

Signatures and Handwritings: To compare/examine with standard (specimen and admitted) writings 

Fake Indian currency notes of various denominations: For examining the presence of essential/security features prescribed by RBI 

Latent writing on documents: For detecting and deciphering 

Stamp impression: To compare/examine with the standard stamped impression 

Printed matter: To compare/examine with the standard ones 

Overwriting, alteration, erasing, etc.: For detecting and deciphering these features on the questioned documents 

Security papers, stamp papers, stamps, fake documents: To ascertain the genuineness 

Common Types of Questioned Documents

Some common types of questioned documents that are analyzed include handwriting and signature on wills, suicide notes, family custody documents, military records, company agreements, loan documents, and real estate documents.

Features on questioned documents that are analyzed by the document experts 

The common features analyzed by the document examiners include alterations and indentations, computer-generated documents, printing process, ink, seals and stamps, signatures, and handwriting. 

Signature Examination

First, the signature is analyzed to determine whether it is original or a copy and whether the signature appears natural. The characteristics of pen pressure, tapered beginning and ending strokes, and uniformity of execution indicate that the signature was prepared naturally. 

Handwriting Examination

Questioned handwriting is analyzed in order to determine if it is original and natural writing. Tools like light sources and microscopes give the examiner a close inspection of the contractions of letter formations, pen lifts, stops and starts, pen pressure, etc. 

Seal and Stamps Examination

The information gained by a Forensic Document Examiner of the characteristics of the stamp and seal impression is based on the material used for creating the stamp, like whether the ink is oil or water-based. 

Ink Examination

Non-destructive ink testing is carried out by VSC (Video Spectral Comparator), which has a series of light sources (I.R. and U.V.) and filters reacting with the documents’ ink. Based on the ink type, the light may reflect, absorb, and re-emit at higher wavelengths. 

Examination of Machine-printed and typewritten documents

Typewritten documents are examined for determining the horizontal spacing, the type of ribbon used, and for classifying the style of type. These indicators help in determining the type of machine that prepared the questioned document. 

Examination of Machine-printed and typewritten documents

Detecting deletions, erasures, and alterations is observed with magnification, specific equipment, and various lighting methods. An examiner analyzes the entire document for different printing processes, irregular spacing, smearing, obscuring substances, use of different fonts, paper fiber disturbance, multiple writing instruments, overwriting, etc. 

Conclusion

At Inside Ink, we provide services for Questioned Document Examination, which includes handwriting and signature examination to verify the authenticity of a document. Our handwriting experts specialize in questioned documents providing examinations relevant to wills, checks, business contracts, and others. We are adept at analyzing various types of questioned documents using scientific and physical methods. If you need a document examination, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will review your case and offer you quality service with dependable results.