Have you ever had a case where the authenticity of a signature on a document was at issue? Cases that involve contracts, wills (even graffiti!!) and other important “writings” often turn on whether it was written by a given person. When the veracity of writing is at issue in a case, attorneys frequently turn to an expert – a trained forensic handwriting examiner.
This presentation details the scientific methodology used by forensic handwriting examiners in order to determine the authenticity of handwriting and signatures. Mike Wakshull of Q9 Consulting provides an excellent introduction to the tools and the trade of the forensic document examiner. In this highly informative presentation Mike teaches the basic tenets of handwriting analysis, describes natural variations in handwriting, explains the forensic document examiners role, highlights case examples where the authenticity of handwriting is at issue and provides an objective framework for handwriting analysis & authentication.
Additional topics covered in this CLE course: the Zodiac case, inter-writer variability, intra-writer variability, handwriting identification techniques, reasons for special cause variation, 21 key elements for handwriting identification, the tools used to examine documents, generally accepted methods of examining documents, handwriting comparison and the difference between simulated writing and disguised writing. In addition, Mike discusses numerous legal cases that he has worked on around the country over the years.
A court-qualified forensic document examiner, Michael N. Wakshull has been involved in the Forensic Document Examination arena since 2010 and belongs to a number of Document Examination Associations. A licensed attorney in California, Jason Castillo actively participated in this course.