(517) 349-3528
Main Office: 120 N. Washington Square, Suite 300 PMB 5068
(954)763-6134
South Office: 2450 Hollywood Blvd, Suit 700, Hollywood, FL 33020
Medical Records Review for Alterations
Alterations, Additions & Rewritings of Medical and Business Records
Lawyers are interested in the forensic examination of disputed records for three main reasons: Case value, avoiding client perjury, and due diligence to the client. Many attorneys are aware that Forensic Document Examiners can determine the authenticity of a signature and do various examinations on typewriters (see below) and printed documents. However; many attorneys are not aware of examinations to detect additions, alterations, or rewritings.
Our laboratory can:
1. Detect an alteration made with a different pen, albeit a color matched ink.
2. Determine the age of a document.
3. Determine the age of a particular ink.
4. Determine when an ink was first commercially available.
5. Determine if additions, alterations, or rewritings of records have occurred, when it happened, who did it, and what pages were replaced.
In a case regarding the record tampering issue to be deemed significant, an addition to a record should have at least one of the following criteria:
1. The intentional concealment of a change that is not clearly noted but takes instrumentation to detect.
2. An addition or change to a critical entry.
3. An entry that was not made contemporaneously with the other entries with no notation of late charting.
4. A pattern of alterations to the critical entries.
5. Testimony is different than the forensic evidence present.
6. The whiting-out, scribbling out or obliteration of an entry.
7. The removal of pages from the records, or expanding the chart with pages created after the fact.
Example of an alteration to a personal check:
Additions that are made with a color matched ink can usually be detected by the use of an infra-red image converter or possibly an argon or krypton laser. The difference in the ink in this range of light is caused by the different excitation levels in the inks. If the inks are different, one ink may luminesce while the other will not and filters out. This can be captured photographically and makes an excellent court exhibit as shown in figures A through C below, or on closed circuit video.
This is especially important when the questioned entry is the lynch-pin entry in a case. Some signs to look for that may indicate record tampering:
- 1. Crowded entries.
- 2. Entries compressed around other entries.
- 3. Entries made in the margins or along the bottom of the page.
- 4. Slant, pressure, and uniformity of handwriting.
- 5. Relative length of questioned entries to other entries in the chart.
- 6. Unnatural spacing between entries. 7
- . Entries that shift the blame onto the patient such as pt. refused or non compliant.
- 8. Differences between what the client says and what the records indicate.
- 9. Strange notations such as complained of NO chest pain.
We also have the ability to chemically or optically remove obliterating inks, stamps, white out, or factors blocking the reading of a particular entry.
Figure A
Check tendered (with a denomination of $8,000)
Figure A
Check tendered (with a denomination of $8,000)
Figure C
Original check as seen through infra-red image converter
(with denomination of $2,000)
We Have Helped Court Cases All Over The World
Speckin Forensic Laboratories has been involved in cases all around the world, from North America, South America, Australia, Europe, Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, and all 50 of the U.S. states Our examiners have presented testimony in over 30 states in the United States, as well as, Jamaica, Israel, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Japan, and Canada.
Speckin Forensic Laboratories has been requested to share its services in the Federal Court, Circuit Court, District Court, Supreme Court, NASD Arbitrations, Employment Arbitrations, Depositions, Municipal Court, Board of Canvassers, Federal Grand Juries, Detroit Recorder’s Court, and Union Arbitrations on over 1000 occasions.
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10am - 5pm
Tue
10am - 5pm
Wed
10am - 6pm
Thu
10am - 6pm
Fri
10am - 6pm
Sat - Sun
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