This document provides an overview of questioned document examination. It defines what constitutes a document and how a document can become questioned or disputed. There are two broad classes of questioned document examination: criminalistic examination to detect forgeries and alterations, and handwriting identification to determine authorship. The document outlines various processes used in the scientific examination of questioned documents, including analysis, comparison, and evaluation. It also describes different types of questioned documents that may be examined, such as documents with questioned signatures, documents with alleged alterations, and handwriting-questioned documents. Finally, it lists various instruments that are used in questioned document examination, such as magnifying lenses, microscopes, and cameras.

1. QUESTIONED DOCUMENT EXAMINATION
CHAPTER 1

3. WHAT IS A DOCUMENT?
A document is any material which contains marks, signs, or
symbols, which are visible, partially visible or invisible that may
presently or ultimately convey a meaning or message to someone.
 Latin word “documentum”, means “lesson, or example (in
Medieval Latin “instruction, or official paper”), OR
 French word “docere”, means to teach.

5. HOW A DOCUMENT BECOMES QUESTIONED
DOCUMENT?
A document becomes a questioned document
when it is being questioned to its originality,
authenticity, authorship, source and genuineness
and when it is placed under scrutiny to determine
whether or not it is disputed.
SCRUTINY- UNDER EXAMINATIO OR INVESTIGATION

6. DISPUTED DOCUMENT – a term suggesting that
there is an argument or controversy over the
document, and strictly speaking this is its true
meaning. In this text, as well as through prior
usage, however, disputed document and
questioned document are employed
interchangeably to signify a document that is
under special scrutiny.

7. TWO BROAD CLASSES IN THE EXAMINATION OF
QUESTIONED DOCUMENT
1. Criminalistic Examination – for detection of
forgeries, alterations and
obliterations.
2. Handwriting Identification – to find out who is
the author of the writing.

8. PROCESSES IN SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF
EXAMINATION
Analysis – properties or characteristics are
observed, measured and determined.
Comparison – properties or characteristics of the
unknown items determined thru
analysis are compared with the familiar or
recorded properties of known items.

9. Evaluation – similarities or dissimilarities in
property or characteristics that have certain value
for identification are determined by their
likelihood or occurrence.

10. DOCUMENT EXAMINATION - consists largely of
comparing questioned handwriting with known
handwriting to determine the writer’s identity. It also
includes the examination of hand printing, forgeries,
typewriting, inks, paper, indented and eradicated
writing, rubber-stamp impressions, charred paper, and
related items. No two people write exactly alike; the
writing process is so given individual. Detailed
examination reveals these hidden characteristics, which
can then form the basis for an expert’s opinion.

11. A. LEGAL BASIS OF DOCUMENTS:
1. In the case of People vs. Moreno, CA, 338 O.G. 119: any written
document by which a right is established or an obligation is
extinguished.
2. In the case of People vs. Nillosquin, CA, 48 O.G. 4453: every deed or
instrument executed by person by which some disposition or agreement
is proved, evidenced or set forth.
3. In relation to Criminal Jurisprudence under the Best Evidence rule: any
physical embodiment of information or ideas; e.g. a letter, a contract, a
receipt, a book of account, a blur print, or an X-ray plate (Black’s Law
Dictionary).

12. KINDS OF DOCUMENT:
PUBLIC DOCUMENT - notarized by a notary public or competent public
official with solemnities required by law.(Cacnio vs. Baens, 5 Phil. 742)
OFFICIAL DOCUMENT - issued by the government or its agents or its
officers having the authority to do so and the offices, which in
accordance with their creation, they are authorized to issue and be
issued in the performance of their duties.
PRIVATE DOCUMENT -executed by a private person without the
intervention of a notary public or of any person legally authorized, by
which documents, some disposition or agreement is proved,
evidenced or set forth (US vs Orera, 11 Phil. 596).

13. COMMERCIAL DOCUMENT - executed in accordance with the
Code of Commerce or any Mercantile Law, containing
disposition of commercial rights or obligations.
ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT (E-Document)- exist only in
electronic form such as data stored on a computer, network,
back-up, archive or other storage media. Examples of
documents subjects to e-discovery are emails, instant message,
e-calendars, audio files, data on handheld devices, animation,
metadata, graphics, photographs, spreadsheets, websites,
drawings and other types of digital data. (Governed by R.A.
8792)

14. WRITINGS WHICH DO NOT CONSTITUTE DOCUMENTS - based
on some Supreme Court Rulings.
A draft of a Municipal payroll which is not yet approved by the
proper authority (People vs. Camacho, 44 Phil. 484).
Mere blank forms of official documents, the spaces of which are
not filled up (People vs. Santiago, CA, 48 O.G. 4558).
Pamphlets or books which do not evidence any disposition or
agreement are not documents but are mere merchandise
(People vs. Agnis, 47 Phil. 945).

15. The examination of questioned document principally covers the
following:
 Examination of Handwriting (which includes signatures) and
hand printing for purposes of determining their genuineness
or source;
 Miscellaneous aspects such as detection of alteration,
decipherment of erased writing, restoration of obliterated
writing, determination of age of documents, identification of
stamps, seal and other authenticating devices, currency bills
and coins and the like.

16. CLASSES OF QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS
The great majority of questioned papers are included in the
following classes:
1. Documents with questioned signatures – these are the
most common disputed documents. They maybe commercial
or legal paper, such as a check, note, receipt, draft, order,
contract, agreements, assignment, will, deed, or similar
documents, the signature of which is under suspicion. Under
this class are found the traced forgery and the forgery
produced by simulating or copying process

17. 2. Documents containing alleged fraudulent alterations
– included here are all documents in which it is alleged
alleged that some alteration as made by erasure,
addition, interlineations or substitution. 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 condition, fraudulent interlineations in contracts,
deeds, wills, and other legal papers.

18. 3. Holograph documents questioned or disputed –
here, the writing of an entire written document is
all questioned. Scrutinize the document, search,
and pay attention to 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.

19. Examples are manuscripts, letters of
introduction and recommendations, letter of
credit, diplomas, marriage certificates,
marriage contracts, court papers, book
plates, etc.

20. 4. Documents attacked on the question of their age or date. –
included here are documents 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.
5. Documents attacked on the question of materials used in
their production. Some documents may be shown to be false
because they were dated many years before the paper was
made on which they were written. Other matters for
investigation here are: type printed forms, lithographed
forms, typewriting, envelops, stamps, contents, or any tangible
thing that has a date value.

21. 6. Documents investigated on the question of type
writings/computer prints. The question that maybe raised in
the document may either be the used of the same machine
at different times or at different times on different machines.

22. 7. Documents or writings investigated because it is alleged that
they identify some person through handwriting. This class
includes all documents, papers, writings, or instruments,
which by theirs handwriting and contents tend to identify
some person. The most common documents of this class are all
kind of anonymous and disputed letters. These may be
ordinary letters offered as evidence, but usually are abusive,
warning, obscene, or libelous communications or any of the
great variety of blackmailing, and threatening letters which so
frequently become the object of legal inquiry.

23. Examples: anonymous and disputed letters,
superscriptions, registrations, and
miscellaneous writings.
8. Genuine documents erroneously or
fraudulently attacked. Sometimes genuine
signatures maybe alleged by the writer as it is
not his own.

24. CLASSES OF DISPUTED SIGNATURES
 Forged signature where no attempt has been made
to make a copy or facsimile of the genuine signature
of the person purporting to have signed the
document. This is commonly referred to as simple
forgery;
 Forged signature which closely resembles the
genuine signature since they have been produced by
tracing process referred to as traced forgery;

25.  Forged signature which resembles the genuine signature
written free hand, commonly known as copied or simulated
forgery;
 Forged signature of fictitious persons;
 Genuine signature that the writer is honestly unwilling to
accept as genuine;
 Genuine signature obtained by trickery;
 Genuine signature deliberately written illegibly or in an
unusual manner to avoid identification.

26. PURPOSE OF PHOTOGRAPHS IN
QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS EXAMINATION
• Photograph serves as a record of the initial
condition of a questioned document.
• Photograph makes clear what otherwise
maybe hidden or indistinct.

27. • By means of photograph, a writing in
question can be accurately enlarged so
that every quality and characteristics of
it can be clearly and properly
interpreted whether the facts so shown
point to genuineness or to forgery.

28. • Any number of accurate reproductions of the
documents could be made through photographs, thus
affording unlimited opportunity for study, comparison
and evaluation by a number of examiners that would
not be possible by using the documents alone.
• Photographs are also useful in showing delicate
discoloration due to chemical erasures or other
fraudulent changes, which may otherwise be
overlooked, denied or misinterpreted.

29. • Erasures by abrasion made by an ordinary rubber
eraser can sometimes be shown very clearly and
recorded in permanent form by a photograph
taken with the paper placed obliquely to the
plane of the lens and plate inclined at just the
right angle of reflection so as to show differences
in the reflected light form different portions of
paper surface.

30. • Transmitted light photography is useful in the examination of
watermarks, determining the identity or the difference in
papers by showing arrangement of the fibers and the
markings of the wire gauge and dandy roll; showing
continuity of strokes; determining retouching or patching of a
writing by showing clearly the presence of added ink film and
the uneven distribution of ink in interrupted strokes.
• Stereographic photomicrograph shows condition of writing in
three dimensional enlargements and is useful in showing
sequences of cross lines or showing writing across a fold
preceded or followed by the folding of a paper.
•

31. INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUSES NEEDED IN
QUESTIONED DOCUMENT EXAMINATION
The following are the instruments
or devices used in the examination of
questioned documents:

32.  Magnifying Lens - is a convex lens that lets the
observer see a larger image of the object under
observation.

33. Shadowgraph - is a machine which
enlarges minute details as much as
20x but with no ocular piece, as in
the microscope. Its facilities
examination of hand writing and type
writing.

34. Stereoscopic binocular microscope (where a tri-
dimensional enlargement is possible)
-enable 3D viewing of specimens
visible to the naked eye. Use them
for viewing insects, crystals, plant
life, circuit boards etc.

35. Measuring test plates (transparent glass)
-A glass plate with a band, or usually
a series of bands, of very finely
ruled lines, used in testing the
resolving power of microscopic
objectives, particularly of high
powers.
(https

36.  Table lamps - -
providing more lighting
in rooms with dimmer
illumination, shedding
some light in a reading
or writing
environment.

37. Transmitted light gadget (light comes from
beneath or behind the glass on which the
document is placed) - It is the most used method
of microscopy. It helps to observe tissues because
it makes the object appear against a bright
background this is caused by the absorption of
part of the transmitted light in dense areas.

38. Ultra-Violet lamp - also called Black-light Lamp,
device for producing electromagnetic
radiations in the wavelengths between those of
visible light and X-rays.

39.  Infra – Red viewer - -are designed to observe
radiation emitted by infrared laser or laser diode
light sources that can't be seen with the naked eye.

40. VSC – Video Spectrum Comparator
- This comparator is useful in the
examination of marked or obliterated
text, watermarks, visible
fluorescence, paper fluorescence and
oblique illumination of indented
writing and embossing. It also detects
variation in the infra-red
characteristics of inks; reveals
alterations by eliminating interfering
background luminescence. By the use
of appropriate filters, background or
other strokes can be eliminated.

41. Camera with micro and macro
lens
- “Macro” refers to
something
large, where “micro” means
small.
This photography styles let’s
the
subject fill all or most of the
frame so
that you can get an
incredible amount
of detail.

42.  Enlarger and other
developing
equipment like film
and
developing chemicals.
-An enlarger is a special
kind of
projector used to create
your
photographic prints.

43. END OF CHAPTER 1