Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Signature Analysis.

I am helping a friend who is facing charges on defrauding the I.R.S. Their prof that she defrauded them is a signature that they claim is hers. I heard that signature's are not valid in criminal cases unless some one saw you sign a so-document. Does any one have any case laws or any thing else on that argument. Or may be some thing on false positive signature analysis.


Asked on 4/25/07, 4:18 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Regina Mullen Legal Data Services, PLC

Re: Signature Analysis.

Not true.

If a signature can be validated, the information is admissible.

In other words, if someone who has experience seeing the signature testifies that the signature is valid, the court will probably allow it.

Since many examples of the signature would be available (including previous tax forms, checks, lease/mortgage agreements), the issue would then be, how likely is it that this signature is or is not hers?

If there is truly doubt, then you'll need to hire a writing expert to testify about the lines and squiggles.

If she signed it, and you're using this as a straw argument, you're likely to get hit with sanctions.

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Answered on 4/25/07, 6:36 pm


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