Sufficient Quantity
Definition
The requirement that the exemplar set contains enough repetitions of each significant individual characteristic to allow the examiner to establish the writer's natural range of variation for that feature.
- Field
- Questioned document examination
- Applies to
- Exemplar (known writing) collection
- Purpose
- Establish natural range of variation per feature
Common questions
How many repetitions of a writing habit count as a sufficient quantity?+
There is no fixed number; the examiner needs enough repeats of each significant characteristic, such as a particular letter formation or connecting stroke, to see how it normally varies across separate writing occasions. A single instance cannot show whether a feature is a stable habit or a one-off slip.
What happens if the exemplar set fails the sufficient quantity requirement?+
The examiner cannot reliably separate genuine natural variation from a feature that only looks unusual because too few samples were seen. The opinion is then qualified or withheld, and the examiner typically requests additional request or course-of-business writings before reaching a conclusion.
Related terms
- Character Inventory
- The pre-collection analysis of the questioned document to identify all letters, numerals, and special characters it contains, which then governs the comparable-text...
- Comparable Text
- The requirement that the exemplar set contains multiple repetitions of each letter, numeral, and character type that appears in the questioned document,...
- Contemporaneity
- The requirement that the exemplar set includes writings produced at approximately the same time as the questioned document, to avoid comparing writing...
- Course-of-Business Writings
- Handwriting exemplars collected from writings the subject produced in the normal course of their life, before the case arose, without knowledge that...
- Gilbert V. California (1967)
- US Supreme Court decision holding that compelled handwriting exemplars do not constitute testimonial self-incrimination protected by the Fifth Amendment, because handwriting is...
- Natural Variation
- The normal within-writer fluctuation in individual features across repetitions of the same letter or writing task; an examiner assesses whether questioned-writing variation...
- PACE 1984 s.61A
- The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 provision (inserted by the Criminal Justice Act 2003) allowing a UK constable to compel a...
- Request Writings
- Handwriting exemplars produced by the person of interest specifically for comparison purposes, under conditions controlled by the investigator or examiner; also called...
- Section 73 IEA / BSA 2023
- The Indian Evidence Act 1872 provision (carried forward into the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023) empowering a court to direct any person to...