Handwriting Expert Consulting Services
There is a major myth in document examination that the only way to know anything is to go through a two-year course with a two-year apprenticeship. Try to discover precisely what this course or apprenticeship contains, and you will be stymied. This myth is featured in a book that purports to be the 2006 second edition of Ordway Hilton’s classic, Scientific Examination of Questioned Documents.
On page 15, one of the two editors states that "forensic document examination does not lend itself solely to correspondence courses or self-study." In other words, Ordway Hilton, whose book is redone by inferior workers, was unqualified, as were Albert S. Osborn and a host of other premier American document examiners who initially learned on their own. However, the finest parts of the book are by three authors who had to engage in extensive self-study. Much of the book botches Hilton's masterpiece by dismembering and rearranging the original text.
If it were Hilton's book, would it be a second edition? Hilton published an original edition and a revised edition in his lifetime. Original: First edition. Revised: Second edition. Alleged posthumous edition: Third edition.
Why do I bother with this exercise in counting? To encourage you not to be intimidated by those who claim awesome status for themselves and denigrate all others. Let me show you how to look closely at their work product to discern flaws such as inability to count editions of a book or to realize that Hilton and their own best authors engaged in self-study.
On this Web page, I provide cases from my files to illustrate the scope of my consulting services and to show how the self-styled biggest and best are impeachable. However, I never provide personal attacks, only challenges based on demonstrable facts, established scientific findings or standard technical methods. Often, when questionable expertise is successfully challenged, the expert becomes personally nasty. A personal attack by an opponent assures you that you have the upper hand.
The four cases, typical of my consulting services in all aspects of document examination, are:
Ink Testing: Preventing the Impossible
Forensic Stylistics: Adventures in Unreliability
The Usual Impeachment: Signature Identification
Enjoy the adventure, and call if you have any questions: 800-367-8403.