Alteration
Definition
Any change made to a document after its original execution, including erasure, obliteration, addition, substitution and overwriting. A material alteration changes the legal effect of the instrument.
- Common forms
- Erasure, obliteration, addition, substitution
- Timing
- After original document execution
- Legal significance
- Material alteration changes legal effect
- Field
- Questioned document examination
Common questions
How does an alteration differ from a forgery?+
Forgery generally involves creating or signing a document falsely from the outset, while alteration involves changing content in a document that was originally genuine, so the examination question shifts from who wrote it to what was changed and when.
What makes an alteration legally material rather than trivial?+
Materiality turns on whether the change affects the rights, obligations, or meaning the document was meant to record, such as altering an amount or a date on a contract, as opposed to a correction that does not change its legal effect, such as fixing an obvious typographical slip.
Related terms
- Addition (Interlineation, Insertion)
- Fresh writing squeezed between lines, in margins, after the last entry, or in blank spaces left in the original document. Often shows...
- Erasure (Chemical)
- Removal of ink by bleaching or oxidising agents such as sodium hypochlorite, chloramine T, oxalic acid, potassium permanganate or hydrogen peroxide. Leaves...
- Erasure (Mechanical)
- Physical removal of writing by rubber, knife, scalpel blade, sandpaper or eraser. Disturbs paper fibres, thins the paper, and lifts the sizing...
- ESDA
- Electrostatic Detection Apparatus; detects latent indentations in paper by charging the surface and cascading toner particles, revealing tracing stylus pressure and writing...
- IR Luminescence
- Emission of near-infrared radiation by ink dye molecules when excited by visible light; different ink formulations luminesce at different intensities, allowing differentiation...
- Obliteration
- Covering of existing writing with an opaque layer (ink, correction fluid, or correction tape) so that the underlying text is invisible in...
- Overwriting
- Tracing over an original stroke with a fresh stroke, usually to change a digit or letter. Detected by stroke thickness, hesitation, and...
- VSC-8000
- Video Spectral Comparator by Foster + Freeman, the standard QD instrument in CFSL and GEQD labs, with broadband visible, UV (254, 365...