Global Review of Questioned Document Laboratories in the 21st Century

In light of the constant advancements in new technologies for the production and examination of authentic, forged and counterfeit documents, an interest was expressed to determine which capabilities, working methods and instrumentation are used in questioned document (QD) laboratories.
Survey answers were collected from recognized document examiners around the world.
The collected information demonstrated that document examination is relatively consistent across the globe. Furthermore, it may be utilized to suggest guidelines for a “best practice” setup for a QD laboratory.
The smaller number of labs currently working in areas such as chemical testing of printing inks and dating of ballpoint inks may encourage other QD laboratories to consider new instrumentation or examination methods.