What to do When someone Forged my Signature on Check?
You should immediately inform your financial institution of the problem. Follow up by informing the person who issued the check. The individual who gave you the check may get their money back from their financial institution and issue you a new one.
People frequently try to steal money from the bank by stealing checkbooks, forging, and depositing fake checks. If someone has attempted to counterfeit your signature on a check, here are four things you may do to protect yourself.
(more…)- Published in Forgery
Can a Handwriting Expert Help in Authenticating Signatures?
If the signature in question is on a last will and testament, the legal process called probate must be followed. So you may want to see an attorney after you have verified the signature is not a forgery. The court makes the final decision as to what happens to the deceased person’s possessions. If the Last Will and Testament is forged, that document will be thrown out. The estate will be “in-testate”. If you are dealing with an autograph, deed, contract or another legal document… the same procedure applies.
(more…)- Published in Handwriting Expert
What To Do if Your Name is Forged on the Title?
Introduction
Handwriting experts frequently deal with titles, deeds, and contracts where your name or signature has been forged, leaving you without your car or property.
What is a title?
Nowadays, most vehicle and motorcycle titles are printed on a unique document called a title. No matter where you live—in New York, Texas, or California—the state will mail you a title proving that you are the rightful owner. The state will give you a copy if you are the title owner. The title won’t be left in the glove box, will it? Because they’ll get your automobile if someone takes it.
(more…)- Published in Client Reviews, Forgery
What Do You Do When A Car Dealer Forges Your Signature?
Use car salesmen often get a bad rap. And, for good reason. The automotive dealer industry is filled with the lowest form of salesmen and often has very low margins to work with. While it might seem like a “good deal”, the extra that you don’t know you are paying for is very profitable for both new and used car salesmen.
But, even if you get a good deal… what happens when you get a lemon?
First, you probably signed away most of your rights when you drive off the lot. Secondly, even the paperwork you didn’t sign… someone else could have signed your name. You won’t find that out until you sue them for the repairs the car required that were hidden from you.
(more…)- Published in Criminal Cases
Where did the phrase “Make Your Mark” come from?
The age of the quill pen is long past us, like the age of the horse and buggy. Even though we’re still using pens and pencils now and 30 years, we might be a lost art. So, you still have to determine how people can make their mark. You know that would mark me though I make their mark, tell me you do know
I could make it up, but I would never lie to you. Yeah, of course. What does it mean? Imprint? Make your imprint and make your impression.
Right? No, what do you mean? Well, colloquially it means to make a splash you know make your mark on society. Yeah, the impression most people in the Middle Ages couldn’t write. So, you just did like a stamp? Yeah, it’s not a stamp. They couldn’t write. So by making your mark that gave them a piece of coal, and they would make a mark as their signature. So that’s what made us it was really it was the first signatures was the mark. Eventually, like well, that Mark looks like his mark. Well, that Mark looks like a net. So, they started customizing their mark, which became an autograph.
- Published in Client Reviews
Do you need to hire a handwriting expert?
If you are an attorney, you are probably already familiar with hiring an expert witness for your case. Choosing the right expert witness is important. Most attorneys have worked with expert witnesses at some point in their career, but most haven’t hired a Forensic Document Examiner.
If your case involves a forged check, a last will and testament, a pre-nuptial agreement, a contract, or a signature that doesn’t seem to be authentic, you should be looking for a Forensic Document Examiner.
You should know a couple of things before you make your first phone call to a Forensic Document Examiner. First of all, how many documents do you need to be analyzed? These are the documents that you and your client think may be forged or not authentic. The Forensic Document Examiner will refer to these as “questioned documents”. This is important to know since the Forensic Document Examiner will charge a fee per questioned document.
Most Forensic Document Examiners charge a flat rate between $600 – $1500 for a written opinion of one or two documents. Rates do vary depending on the number of questioned documents. Attorneys can also request a retainer. Retainers can vary, but are normally $2,500 and most are non-refundable. You should download the fees from the Forensic Document Examiner’s website to avoid any surprises.
You will also need to provide samples of your client’s known handwriting so the Forensic Document Examiner can compare them against the questioned document(s). These exemplars are commonly referred to as Known Documents. The known documents should be from the same time frame and you should provide as many known documents as you can. For a Forensic Document Examiner to do the best job possible, the known samples should also be a high-quality copy. No one is going to win a case by looking at a poor fax copy.
Do you have to hire a local Forensic Document Examiner?
Most attorneys and clients feel they have to hire someone in their own hometown. However, this simply isn’t true anymore. Most cases these days can be inspected through high-resolution scans, email, faxes, and overnight mail. Since the Covid-19 situation, courts around the country are accepting zoom testimony from both attorneys and expert witnesses. This expands your ability to hire the best in the USA and not restrict yourself to a local expert.
If your case involves originals, and the originals can’t be sent overnight, then you might incur an additional travel expense so the Forensic Document Examiner can review the original documents.
Is it worth it to hire a Forensic Document Examiner and pay them to travel?
Hiring a Forensic Document Examiner is like buying a parachute. You never want to buy a parachute based on the lowest price. You would always want to buy the safest parachute regardless of cost. Hiring a Forensic Document Examiner is no different. You want the most qualified and experienced examiner for your case and not the examiner who is the closest. You can tell who the most qualified and experienced examiner is by looking at their Curriculum Vitae. That is just a fancy word for resume.
If you are looking to hire a Forensic Document Examiner for your case, contact us now to schedule an appointment. https://handwritingexpertdallas.com
This article was written by Mari Baggett
- Published in Criminal Cases
What do you do if you think someone Forged Your Parents Last Will and Testament?
This short article tells you how to deal with the probate court and the possible forgery of your parents’ will. The death of your parents is a difficult time.
You’re probably here because you’ve just lost one of your parents, and now you’re tasked with handling the last will and testament.
If the signature on the Last Will and Testament or those Trust documents doesn’t look authentic, this article is for you.
My name is Bart Baggett and I founded Handwriting Experts Inc over 25 years ago to help people just like you. We specialize in probate cases, involving signatures, trusts, deeds, and wills.
Oftentimes, it is in the case where someone has passed away and the entire estate rest in the hands of the probate court judge. If a judge decides that this is what your parents wanted, your parent’s house, cards, jewelry, and the entire estate can be handed to the idiot step-child.
It’s our burden to figure out our parents’ estate and handle all the details. And unfortunately, it’s really, really common for brothers, sisters, uncles, and even caregivers to forge wills and try to take everything— and I mean everything!
So, you’re not alone in this situation. And I know it’s confusing. If you’re not an attorney, then this will be very helpful for you. I’ll walk you through how we work with probate cases and how a court-qualified handwriting expert can help you during the process.
At Handwriting Experts Inc., we are forensic document examiners. We require authenticated handwriting samples and signatures of the decedent (your mom or your dad who has passed away… and we determine if indeed the will for this person has been forged.
Here are the steps we follow to determine if a Last Will and Testament has been forged.
- Is there a document with the original, or “wet”, signature?
Often times in a probate case, there’s an actual wet signature (pen and ink original) sitting at the courthouse under lock and key. But that’s not always true. If it’s possible to get access to that will, one of our experts will personally go to the courthouse with a microscope and a camera to inspect it professionally. At the courthouse, a forensic document examiner will take photographs of the document in question and confirm whether or not a human being’s handwriting wrote and signed the will. Sometimes color photocopies can look like wet ink, but it is not the same under a microscope. See the graphic below. One photograph is a color printout, the other is a blue ballpoint pen written by a human hand.
2 Compare the signature on the will with other samples of the decedent’s signature.
Next, we’ll compare those signatures to other samples of your parent’s handwriting—their passport, visa, checkbook, birth certificates, wedding certificates, etc. We’ll look for their known handwriting. Your that’s your job is to find their known handwriting. And then, we will compare them using our skills of handwriting identification to determine authorship.
Write an Official report on the Authenticity of the signature on the will. Has it been forged or not?
We’re handwriting experts. I’ve been doing this for 30 years; I’ll know for sure whether that signature is forged. Even if the parent was really sick, or had Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, we can take all that into consideration. And it’s impossible to slip a forgery past trained eyes.
So, once I or my team does that job, we decide if a forgery happened. If it did, we’ll write a declaration. And if you need, we’ll come to court and testify on your behalf.
If this is a service that you need, the pricing is on our website.
Whether you deal with me, any of our experts, or any other court-qualified handwriting expert in the country, the process is pretty much the same. In order to prove a forgery in court, you’re going to have to hire a forensic handwriting expert, and they’re going to have to be court qualified. They’re going to have to testify. Otherwise, it’s just your word against his (or her word).
And that’s the process of how you handle the determination of a forgery of a will and testament in court. You simply hire the right forensic document examiner.
If you need our help, please reach out. There are respectable trained handwriting experts at a variety of price ranges at this directory: www.handwritingexperts.com. You can hire any of our professional experts on the website. If you want to hire me directly, go to handwritingexpertusa.com and speak to one of our case managers during your free consultation phone call. Bart Baggett takes cases worldwide. His main offices are in Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, New York, and San Francisco.
We have offices around the country, and we’ll travel to you to help you through this difficult time. While we know the circumstances for needing our services are not the best, at least you can rest knowing the wishes of your loved one have been fulfilled.
Call Now For a Price Quote On Your Case:
1-800-980-9030 or 323-544-9277
- Published in Document Examination, Forgery, Handwriting Expert
5 Questions You Must Ask Before Hiring a Forensic Handwriting Expert
If you are considering hiring a forensic document examiner, this video helps you know what questions to ask and how to hire the best one for your case. Most people refer to this profession as a handwriting expert, a handwriting analyst, or a forensic document examiner. They are all the same terms when being used by a legal professional.
How many documents have been forged?
Do you need a forensic document examiner?
How many questioned documents do you have?
Does your case involve ink and paper testing?
Do you offer a flat rate or retainer?
“Here are the top 5 tips to hire the right questions before hiring a document examiner.” In order to hire the right forensic handwriting expert for your case, you need to make sure the expert you hire has been court qualified over 100 times and has the proper education and verbal skills to past voire dire. Not many forensic document examiners have testified over 100 times and the judge 100% of the time accepted his/ her credentials. So, ask the right questions and hire the right expert for your case.
Bart Baggett is a court-qualified document examiner serving the Dallas, TX (DFW) and North Texas area for the past 25 years. Contact his office today to see if he has availability for you to become a new client.
- Published in Criminal Cases