The judicial practice of recent years has indicated a steady increase in the use of specialized knowledge in judicial proceedings. This tendency is clearly expressed in civil and arbitration proceedings where research and assessment of various kinds of documents submitted by the parties in the proceedings is a daily practice.
In resolving disputes arising between objects that built their relationships contractual terms, written documents often appears as sources of liabilities. Documents become objects of falsification (forgery of contracts, bills, obligations etc), are not recognized as by the parties as issued legitimately. When manufacturing documents or their requisites modern techniques means are used; this significantly complicates the recognition of counterfeits. By solving these problems is the forensic expertise of documents relating to criminalistic kind of expertise and is separated into an independent type due to the specifics of the objects under investigation and the task to be solved.
The subject of technical and forensic expertise of documents are the actual circumstances associated with the production of documents, the identification of the documents and technical means of production of documents that may have the value of evidence in criminal proceedings, civil, administrative and commercial matters.
The experts of the Laboratory of Forensic Research of the Department of technical research of documents of KFI use a large technical base in their work. Cooperation with foreign colleagues and access to the international databases makes it possible to carry out researches both objects of domestic production and samples of foreign documents. The expert practice of the specialists if Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise shows that the most frequently to the research are provided: passports, powers of attorneys, driving licenses, certificates of registration of vehicles, gift agreements, guaranties and receipts etc. The list of objects is not exhausted on these kinds of documents.
The list of questions submitted for the technical examination of documents is extensive. According to the specialists of KFI, there are cases of full and partial forgery of documents, such as stripping, washing off, changing of the initial content and etc. There are frequently data changes in theses documents relating the value, cost and date of manufacturing.
Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise is the only one institution that has the capacity to carry out expertise of biometric documents which have now become a separate category of objects under investigation. Chips used in new types of electronic documents serve as additional element of protection and control as well as allow obtaining information about the owner more quickly if necessary. At the same time new technologies attract attention of offenders who are trying to find ways to forge documents.
The specialists of KFI for more effective work contact with the world’s leading institutions – there are established cooperation and business contacts and experience is regularly exchanged between specialists.
The specialists of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise have access to the Dutch system «DISK» which contains samples of documents and they are also using the Polish police system «FAVI» for identification of vehicles and documents’ research. The developers of the program laid the foundation for the idea of creating a collection of documents and vehicles with special data for the use of forensic experts. The structure of the program is based on countries and years of release of objects under investigation. In addition, the closed system contains the international experts’ forum in which employees of different expert institutions communicate on the subject of the professional activity.
Thus, the international projects involve the accumulation and exchange of information in order to counteract criminal business. More over it allows the experts of KFI communicate quickly and exchange experience and information with foreign colleagues, improve scientific approaches and practice of examinations on vehicles’ identification at a transnational level.
