Legal regulation and possibilities of appointing forensic examinations on copies of documents

The article considers the legal grounds for the appointment of forensic examination and research of images of manuscripts (signatures and handwritten records) contained on paper copies of documents, as well as displayed on other information carriers, in criminal, civil, arbitration and administrative cases. Based on established practice of appointing such examinations, as well as assessing their results by crime investigation bodies and courts, a list of questions has been proposed that can be put to experts of different specialities involved in the productions of examination, the objects of which are copies of documents, as well as recommendations that have been formed, concerning the specifics of the preparation of materials of these forensic examinations. On the basis of the consideration of existing procedure for certifying documents, as well as the requirements and rules for their production developed in practice, attention is drawn to the need to distinguish copies of documents from technical images of documents that cannot be considered as a source of obtaining evidentiary information until the reliable circumstances of their production are established.