How to find an Expert

Criteria for assessing experts

Qualifications, training and experience

Forensic Document Examiners are scientists with good scientific degrees and have trained in reputable forensic science laboratories alongside other scientists of many years’ experience in their speciality.

However, make sure that your Expert not only has experience in the field, but has relevant experience. A CV with “20 years in the Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory....” does look very impressive, but if those 20 years were spent in the Ballistics Section, you won't want this Expert giving evidence on handwriting!

Good Forensic Document Examiners contribute to the development of the discipline, submitting papers to journals and contributing to scientific meetings.

Equipment and facilities

Look for investment in equipment, training and support facilities in your chosen Expert. There are too many independent Experts who believe that they can do the same job with a magnifying glass on their kitchen table. Try offering to hold a conference at their laboratory!

Quality Assurance

A good Expert will operate an independently or peer-assessed quality management system, for example BS EN ISO 9001:2000.

Quality standards have an advantage of ensuring that correct and appropriate procedures are used on every occasion. Quality Management Systems require regular monitoring and to ensure standards are maintained. Remember, though, that one can have perfect methodology but the results can still be wrongly interpreted. It is also extremely important to assess the competence of the Expert.

Phone a Friend?

By all means put out an e-mail to your respected colleagues and ask for help from those who have already had personal experience of using a Forensic Document Examiner. But you may be tempted to look in other places.

Advertisements in publications for the Legal profession

There are a number of excellent publications written for the Legal profession with advertisement sections where Experts can set out their services. Bear in mind though that the publishers do little vetting of the content of these advertisements - they are, of course, primarily a source of revenue for the publications. Treat these advertisements with the same caution you would with any other advertisement you see.

Expert Witness directories and the Internet

The same rules apply! Entries in these proliferating publications appear primarily for two reasons – firstly, so that the Experts can advertise their services, and secondly, so that the publisher can earn money. In spite of the apparent informed nature of these publications, there is rarely any attempt to check that any of the claims made by the advertisers can be substantiated.

Academies and Institutes of Experts

These, too, have proliferated - the Academy of Experts and the Expert Witness Institute to name but two. And on the face of it they look impressive, using high-profile people up front and exuding professionalism, expertise and quality. Treat with care though. These organisations act as umbrellas for an extremely wide range of disciplines - everything from dentists to document examiners. Experts may undergo some form of vetting - one or two references from satisfied customers, perhaps – but most Expert institutes will freely admit that they do not qualify the Experts on their roles. Be aware, too, that those who are unable to get any other sort of professional qualification vigorously seek membership of such organisations.

Competence and the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners

The forensic science community has recognised that there is a need to establish some form of regulatory body so that professional standards and competence can be set, assessed and maintained.

Emerging from a recommendation of the 1993 Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, in a government-backed scheme under the auspices of Royal Society of Chemistry, a Register was established which promotes and maintains standards of competence, practice, discipline and ethics in the profession of Forensic Science. Now the task of selecting an Expert has become much simpler because registration automatically indicates that the expert has the appropriate background, sufficient experience and the necessary equipment to do the job.

·	It is a published register of competent forensic practitioners ensuring through four-yearly re-validation that they keep up to date and maintain competence

·	Currently it covers questioned documents, drugs, toxicology, marks, particulates and other traces, human contact traces, firearms and incident reconstruction.

·	Assessment is based on peer review and an assessment of recent work, journals, log books, appraisal results, portfolios, courses.

Since March 2001 when it opened, 703 practitioners have qualified to be on the Register – 33 of them Forensic Document Examiners. Now the Courts and the Legal profession have an independent and objective way of finding an appropriate and competent Expert