Forensic Document Examination in the 21st Century

Forensic Document Examination in the 21st Century covers the latest technology and techniques providing a complete resource on contemporary issues and methods in forensic document examination. Forensic document examiners provide their findings as expert testimony in court. Due to rapid changes in technology, including digital documents, printing and photocopying capabilities, and more, there is a great need for this up-to-date reference.

The examination of documents can include comparison of handwriting or hand-printing; detection of alterations or photocopier and computer manipulation; restoration or decipherment of erased and obliterated writing; visualization of latent impressions; the identification of printing processes; and differentiation of inks. Computer-generated documents are prevalent, and electronically-captured signatures are becoming more widespread, meaning the knowledge of advances in technology and adoption of new validated techniques and methods of document examination are crucial to the reliability of forensic opinions.

Forensic Document Examination in the 21st Century includes the latest research on the subject and with contributions from leading experts on their various areas of expertise. The book will be a welcome addition to the literature and support the foundational basis for methods and procedures for use it expert testimony in court, serving as a resource for forensic document examiners, trainees, and those in the criminal and legal communities who use the services of expert document examiners and witnesses

Jan Seaman Kelly has been an FDE since 1987. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Central Oklahoma. She did her formal training in forensic document examination from George Lewis at the US Postal Laboratory in San Bruno, California. Ms. Kelly is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners (ABFDE) and a Fellow of the Questioned Document Section in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). She established Forensic Dynamics LLC, a private forensic document examination firm that provides examinations and consultations in civil and criminal cases from government and private sectors.

Ms. Kelly’s accomplishments in the field of forensic document examination include serving as Director, Secretary, and President of the ABFDE from 1995 through 2002. She held the offices of Program Chair, Section Secretary and Section Chair of the Questioned Documents Section in AAFS from 2016 to 2020. Ms. Kelly served as Section Chair of the 2020 AAFS Interdisciplinary Symposium. She is a member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) Subcommittee for Forensic Documents and a member of the Academy Standards Board (ASB). Ms. Kelly received two awards in 2004: the Ordway Hilton Award presented by the Questioned Document Section of the AAFS and named Safety Officer of the Year by the Rotary Clubs of Southern Nevada. The ABFDE presented the Charles C. Scott Award to Ms. Kelly in 2002 for her defense of the forensic document profession as a member of the Daubert Group.

Ms. Kelly is the coeditor and coauthor of several chapters in the second edition of Scientific Examination of Questioned Documents, released by CRC Press in 2006. She is the author of Forensic Examination of Rubber Stamps, released by Charles C. Thomas Publisher in 2002. In 1994, the ABFDE published her 62-page monograph, Significant Dates of Typing Methods. Ms. Kelly has published several articles in professional journals such as the Journal of Forensic Sciences and the Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners.

Miriam Angel earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC). She did her training at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1994 to 1996 and continues to work as a Forensic Document Examiner in the LAPD laboratory.

Ms. Angel is a Diplomate of the ABFDE and is currently serving on the ABFDE Board of Directors. She was the Secretary of the ABFDE from 2017 to 2019. She is a member of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners and the AAFS. She also currently serves on the OSAC Forensic Document Examination Subcommittee. Ms. Angel has given several presentations and published articles in professional journals on kinematics and signature complexity. Having recently completed an 8-month online course on Essentials of Forensic Interpretation from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, she has presented the application of logical reasoning to handwriting examination at the AAFS and to colleagues at the LAPD laboratory.