10

I found this similar question that already has an accepted answer. However, I don't fully like that answer because it says that "signed contract would not be binding if you can prove that it is fraud". Basically answer to the question contains original question because "faked signature" is fraud.

So I will ask again - in disputes how is it proved that signature was faked by another person on legal documents?

In the answer, I want something among the lines:

  1. The judge looks at your authentic signatures from the past of various documents and on the one that has allegedly faked signature. Of course this method is not reliable alone.

  2. The judge looks for other discrepancies in the situation as a whole (e.g. time when contract was signed). And then if you have alibi that you weren't physically in the place where contract allegedly was signed it is considered that signature is not authentic.

  3. Someone launches investigation against the person who is accused of faking signatures to see if other people have suffered from the same issue. If considerable amount of people are saying the same thing then that serves as proof.

The reason I am asking this is because today we received copies of Application and Termination forms signed by my friend regarding the case I have discussed here. According to my friend at the time of signing there was only one page and that was Application Form. However, now they sent us 3 pages where second page talks about this $840 fee and Application form does not explicitly mention that there was more than one page. Also, signature on other pages is forged - it looks different. I think that either the sales person, a young girl, was interested to get more customers because she probably receives commission from each deal and decided to forge my friend's signature on the other two pages. Or the customer representative realized that sales person did not give my friend to sign the other two pages and they forged my friends signature before sending it to us so that they would have "legal" rights to keep $840 that they charged. Of course there is a chance that the company as a whole is doing fraud, but I think that would be way too blatant move. Note, that there are other people complaining that this companies' sales persons promise no early termination fees, however, when customers ask for a copy of documents to dispute these fees they receive 3 pages that actually state ETF. So potential victims feel guilty that they signed something that they did not get a chance to read in the first place.

Is it even possible to prove fraud in a case where con-artist adds another page and forges signature? If yes, then how?

Improve this question
3
  • 4
    You should consult a lawyer. If a someone seeks to enforce a contract they must show that you did indeed sign it. They carry the burden of proof. So it will be on them to prove you did sign it. If you sue them, you'll have to show it was fraudulent. Depending on all the facts, a lawyer will tell you the best way to proceed. I strongly suggest you stop by and get a consultation. Some attorneys may even offer a free consultation.
    – Viktor
    Commented Dec 13, 2015 at 19:20
  • @Viktor In this case we would be plaintiff because that company already charged us $840 and burden of proof falls on us because we want this fee to be reverted through court. I just want to understand the process how forged signatures are proved so that I would understand our chances in providing initial evidence to police. If I will have enough confidence that this is something we can do then I will proceed with attorney consultation. Of course if I could find a free one I would go right away for consultation.
    – Jonny
    Commented Dec 13, 2015 at 21:10
  • 2
    Worth noting that it is expensive and difficult to disprove a good forgery. I've certainly lost some cases like this one even though I know for a fact that my client is telling the truth. Other times, I personally don't know who is telling the truth and make the best argument I can for a client since a lawyer doesn't need to know the truth - the lawyer is simply barred from defending what he knows to be a fraud.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 6:57

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
8

By producing sufficient evidence at trial.

In this case, the most likely sources of evidence would either be eye witnesses (if someone witnessed the forgery) or expert testimony (i.e., handwriting experts). Any experts would have done an analysis and would testify about the results of their analysis. Any eye witnesses would testify to what they personally observed.

Judges are not handwriting experts. They don't evaluate signatures.

Judges are law experts. They evaluate evidence.

Sworn testimony (subject to cross-examination) by a qualified handwriting expert stating so would be evidence of a forged signature. The handwriting expert would conduct all the necessary analysis, then provide a conclusion and their testimony in exchange for a fee.

Also, patterns of deceptive conduct (that can be found during discovery) could be introduced as evidence to impeach the credibility of the testimony of any witness (including your counterparty).

I am not an attorney. I am not your attorney. Please do not do anything based on anything I have written because I really don't know what I am talking about. I'm just stumbling around in the dark like everybody else. If you need help with a case, please hire a real attorney and even offer to pay them for their time and expertise.

Improve this answer
9
  • 1
    6.5% error rate is bad if it were to be used as the deciding factor. That's like saying there's a 6.5% chance an innocent man will get a criminal record and sent to jail.
    – AlexP
    Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 13:01
  • 1
    It's likely that two people would be asked to testify under oath; one that they didn't sign, the other that you did sign. The other would be the employee of some company. As much as I would support my company in general, if they asked me to make a false statement in court, there's no way I would turn into a criminal to do my company a favour. Especially not for $840.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 9:11
  • 2
    @gnasher729: As a practical matter, I would consider it unlikely that a person whos job it is to collect signatures all day every day could remember any one specific signature above the rest unless there was something highly unusual about it (like it was from a very famous person). At some point, I would think all the signatures tend to blur together in one's mind and, therefore, any testimony about it would be impossible.
    – Alexanne Senger
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 14:54
  • 1
    One common way to prove a forgery would be to have the person who allegedly signed the document testify under oath at trial and explain why this is not and could not be their signature.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 15:07
  • 2
    @Mowzer: In that case, I say under oath that I didn't sign, the other person says (under oath if they like) that they can't remember. But there is also the matter that there is a signature, and someone has put the signature there. And I'd expect the employee to remember that they put the signature there. Unless they are faking so many signatures that they can't remember :-(
    – gnasher729
    Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 9:19
0

If their affirmative defense is that "you signed the agreement", they would have the burden of proving that the signature was yours and placed upon those documents by you.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .