The Forensic expert kollegium conducts handwriting examinations of all types of documents. Handwriting examination makes it possible to establish the authenticity of handwritten entries and signatures in various types of documentation. This type of examination has a wide scope of application, since cases of document falsification, forgery of entries and (or) signatures are not uncommon. Contracts, receipts, acts of completed works, entries in journals, wills, letters, and other significant documents are subject to forgery. Handwriting examination helps in establishing the truth.

Handwriting is a relatively stable system of movements reflected in manuscripts, the formation of which is based on a writing-motor skill unique to each person.

Tasks of handwriting examination:

• identification – establishing the performer of the text or signature;
• diagnostic – establishing the fact of influence on the writing process of any “disturbing” factors;
• diagnostic-classification – establishing the принадлежность of the performer to a certain group of persons (determination of the gender and age of the performer).

Questions addressed during handwriting examination:

1. Identification: 

• Was the handwritten text of the document (name, details, etc.) executed by citizen … (indicate full name) or by another person?
• By whom was the signature on behalf of citizen … (indicate full name), located in the examined document (name, details, line, column, after which word), executed – by him/her or by someone else?
• By whom, citizen … (indicate full name) or someone else, was the signature on behalf of an unidentified (fictional) person, located in the examined document (document details, line, column), executed?
• Were the entries (signatures) in several documents (or in different parts of one document or different fragments of the text) made by one or different persons?

2.Diagnostic: 

• Was the examined text (signature) executed under any unusual conditions (unusual posture, unusual writing instrument, unusual writing surface, etc.)?
• Was the examined text (signature) executed in an unusual condition (illness, intoxication)?
• Was the text executed with intentionally altered handwriting (with imitation of another person’s handwriting, with the non-dominant (left) hand)?

3. Diagnostic-classification: 

• By a person of which gender (male or female) was the examined text executed?
• What is the age of the performer of the manuscript?

Objects of handwriting examination are:

• handwritten text or part of it;
• short entry;
• numerical entry;
• signature.

Original documents must be provided as objects of examination. Digital copies made at the highest possible resolution are allowed, but for a categorical conclusion it is preferable to provide the handwriting expert with the original.

For conducting a handwriting examination, it is important to correctly collect comparison materials. Free, conditionally free, and experimental samples are distinguished.

Free samples are manuscripts and entries executed by a specific person before the initiation of the case and not related to it, i.e., the performer does not assume that they may be used as comparative material in the examination. These include: personal correspondence materials (letters, notes, diaries) and business correspondence (applications, explanations, reports, orders), personal file documents (questionnaires, autobiographies, contracts), working notes (diaries, notebooks, address books), educational materials (lecture notes), entries and signatures in accounting documents (payroll sheets, orders, receipts).

Conditionally free samples are various documents executed by the presumed performer during the investigation or court proceedings. These include explanations, applications, petitions, complaints, statements of claim, entries and signatures in interrogation protocols, confrontations, etc.

Experimental samples are manuscripts and signatures executed by the presumed performer specifically for the examination.

The number of samples submitted for examination should preferably include samples made within an interval of up to 1 year from the moment of execution of the disputed signature or handwritten entries:

• for signatures – at least 10 signatures in various documents;
• for entries – at least 5 standard sheets of handwritten texts.

The materials provided in the maximum possible volume will allow, using the most modern methods and relying on many years of expert practice, to carry out a high-quality and reliable handwriting examination.

You may contact the Forensic expert kollegium for consultation regarding handwriting examination at: Minsk, Zhukovskaga St., 11A, 4th floor

or by phone: +375 (17) 317 04 71; +375 (17) 317 04 72; +375 (17) 317 04 73; +375 (17) 317 04 74; +375 (17) 317 04 76; +375 (29) 109 60 11; +375 (44) 588 60 11.