The evidentiary value of the results of expert examination of digital images of handwritten document details

The article is devoted to one of the urgent problems of expert practice - forensic examination of images of handwritten requisites. The author analyses the existing methodological approaches to the study of objects of this category having digital nature, focusing on the electrophotographic technology of obtaining such images. The article draws attention to the fact that the method of digital electrophotographic printing is often used to disguise various document falsifications, including computer editing. In printouts obtained by this method, it is impossible to comply with the requirements of the methodology for establishing the signs of technical forgery of a signature, which reduces the validity and reliability of the subsequent identification study. It is noted that defects in the units and mechanisms of the printing device may affect the quality of displaying the strokes of handwriting objects on paper and distort the results of the expert study. It is emphasised that in these circumstances it is natural for the expert to refuse to solve the question, and any formulation of a conditional conclusion is meaningless and deprives it of any evidentiary value.