STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS

M. Patricia Fisher, M.J.*

BFDE** – Board Certified Forensic Document Examiner

Overview

Over 30 years full time work as a forensic document examiner on cases involving a broad range of document examination problems that use non-destructive testing including:

  • Handwriting/signature identification
  • Fabricated and/or altered documents
  • Identification problems involving typewriters, computer printouts, e-mail printouts, watermarks, papers, writing instruments and intersections of lines, among others.

Specializes in questioned documents in probate and financial elder abuse matters, altered and fabricated documents, and complex cases involving multiple document issues.

Qualified to testify in Federal and State Courts in California, New York, and Nevada, Expert Witness  in over 300 court proceedings. Additional testimony provided in arbitrations, hearings, and depositions.

Laboratory

Standard testing procedures using state-of-the-art laboratory including the ESDA Lite for indented writing testing, the Video Spectral Comparator (VSC®80i) for testing requiring a range of light and infrared and ultraviolet sources for paper and ink examinations, and an Olympus stereo-zoom trinocular microscope with attached digital camera with 4K resolution.

Professional Education and Publications

Actively participates on an annual basis in training workshops and continuing education related to the field of forensic document examination field. Extensive background in teaching and writing for presentation of document issues to the layperson and in writing laboratory reports. A frequent presenter at professional meetings. Twenty publications in the field.

Certification and Professional Associations

Diplomate of and certified by the Board of Forensic Document Examiners (BFDE) and the Association of Certified Fraud Specialists (ACFS). Editor of the Journal of Forensic Document Examination- 2005-2018. Currently on the Editorial Board. Member of the International Graphonomics Society (IGS), an international organization of academics, researchers, pattern recognition scientists, and document examiner practitioners.

* Masters in Journalism, University of California, Berkeley

** The BFDE’s certification program has been accredited by the Forensic Specialties Accreditation Board.

A more extensive Statement of Qualifications is available upon request.