What is a Forensic Document Examiner and What Do They Do?
The field of forensic document examination offers services related to the study of documents or other materials containing handwriting, typewriting, or printing. A forensic document examiner draws conclusions about documents including: verification of authenticity, signature comparison and identification; alterations of documents (erasures, indented writing, altered sequence of writing) and any other problem that arises concerning the legitimacy of writing on documents. Forensic document examiners are also known as handwriting experts. Some people confuse the title “handwriting analyst” with a qualified handwriting expert. Handwriting analysis is the psychological profiling of a person based on handwriting styles. This is very different than a “handwriting expert” (or better stated a forensic document examiner). The document examiner is trained to determine the authorship of a handwriting sample and provide no evaluation of the writer’s mental state.
