Business records, contracts and agreements, insurance and mortgage fraud, complex business litigation

Questioned documents – documents in dispute

Everything went smoothly when the partners signed the contract. Now, one partner claims that the signature is not his. A guarantor to multimillion dollar loan says he didn't sign the guarantee....

Common business document disputes can be scenarios such as:

• At the time of contract, all parties were seemingly in agreement. Later, one signatore claims the signature isn't his.
• A guarantor to a multimillion dollar loan later claimed he didn't sign the loan.
• A client of a major brokerage firm adamently denies that the signature on the client document is not hers, saying her son forged her signature to get the money.
• A couple sued the bank for transferring $2M overseas without permission, and claim the FAX copy authorizing the transfer is not genuine.

QUESTION: How can the expert verify?

In a disputed contract matter, laboratory tests proved the genuineness of a companion and second contract:

• Nondestructive testing with ultraviolet and infrared sources of both contracts dated the same day did not show differences in the papers or inks.
• An indentation of the signature from the genuine contract was indented in the questioned contract, showing that these two contracts had been in direct contact with each other.
• The known and questioned signatures were all written naturally and did not contain evidence of simulation or having been copied from a model or model signatures.
• A black ball point pen used to sign the names on the questioned and known contracts both contained unusual ink deposits. A combination of all these factors assisted in proving that the questioned contract was genuine.

Document types

Questioned documents in business, insurance and mortgage fraud, and complex litigation, can commonly include:

• Agreements, contracts, guarantees
• Corporate by-laws, minutes of meetings
• Promissory notes
• Emails (hard copy), facsimiles, and computer printouts provided for evidence
• Deeds, escrows, addendums, other real estate documents
• Brokerage firm client agreements, retirement plans, beneficiary forms
• Stock certificates and medallions used to verify the transfer of stocks
• Letters of authorization to transfer funds or change parties who are authorized to transfer funds
• Patents, copyrights
• Checks, bank account cards, loan, other bank documents
• Insurance applications, beneficiary forms

Was the electronic signature genuine in an insurance claim case?

Not every document that is challenged, such as in the case of the questioned contract, turns out to be forged, fabricated, or altered. Careful study and testing of the documents is critical before any presumptions are made.

• For example, a challenge to a signature on an insurance document, determined that the questioned signature was genuine. However, the signature was written on an electronic tablet. The insurance company did not keep a hard copy, only the metadata.
• In electronic signature process, metadata is saved so it can be later reconstructed.
• Photocopies of the earlier signatures signed on the electronic tablet produced by the claimant were important for comparison to see what artifacts or changes in the signature resulted from a signature now in an electronic form.

Complex cases

Complex business litigation often involves multiple types of documents such as hard copies of emails, facsimiles, PDF files, computer printouts, computer processed and handwritten documents, documents on different types of papers using different writing instruments or multiple printers. Originals in international business transactions often are not available; and computers and other equipment used to create the documents may no longer exist.

However, the issues related to the documents must still be analyzed. Complex litigation can range from thousands of documents or be just one disputed document central to the case. In either instance, each side's expert and attorney must spend hours of analysis to effectively present the expert's opinion.

Need Help? 30 years experience available as your resource

Ms. Fisher understands has more than 30 years experience in questioned document analysis and testing in business, insurance and mortgage fraud cases, and in complex litigation. Her experience spans hundreds of cases involving attorneys or insurance companies and their clients

Contact:

800-987-8129 or Click to Email