Forensic Document Examiners
Forensic Document Examiner (FDE), also known as a Questioned Document Examiner (QDE), applies scientific techniques to detect fraudulent signatures and/or documents or authenticate genuine signatures and/or documents. They then testify as to the genuine or spurious nature of these documents. His work involves the study of any material upon which a permanent or semi-permanent message can be recorded. The document examiner studies not only the writing on a document, but the materials of which the document is composed. This includes the study of the composition of the paper and ink to detect alterations or to determine the time frame in which the document was created. Forensic document examiners also study digital images of documents. Digital images include photographs and scans.