Technical due diligence is a study of a document, details of a document, materials, and substances, as well as technical means used in the process of creating, storing, and amending a document.
What Should You Know About Technical Due Diligence of Documents?
With the advent of digital documents, forgeries have become more than just more. To fakes, erasures, aging, etching – more sophisticated, already digital fakes were added. It is clear that it has become more difficult to identify them. At the same time, the document, as it was, remains the main evidence in courts of various levels and systems.
Technical due diligence of documents is a traditional forensic examination that establishes the real circumstances under which the documents were produced. Such circumstances can be the most important evidence in civil and criminal cases. Examination of the details of documents includes the study of handwritten signatures, records, seals and stamps, images or texts, etc.
Technical due diligence is the process of assessing the technology and related aspects of a company, including its:
- products;
- software;
- product roadmap;
- product differentiators;
- systems;
- practices.
The Main Expectations from the Technical Due Diligence
At present, technical due diligence is a demanded service. An expert examination will establish important circumstances and facts that play a decisive role in sentencing or in resolving a dispute. With the continuous development of copier technology, such changes can only be determined by a specialist with relevant experience. Technical due diligence is the examination of the details of documents, and examination of the materials of documents in order to:
- determining the age of document production;
- establishing the sequence of execution of the details of the document (for example, what was previously applied to paper – text or signature);
- determining the method of document production;
- establishing the fact of addition, erasure, etching, etc.;
- the restoration of the original content of documents (flooded, smeared, erased, burnt image);
- other purposes.
As part of technical due diligence, issues are resolved to establish the method of execution of documents and details in documents (for example, in handwriting or using any technical means), to establish the production of a document by editing, to establish the execution of signatures and handwritten notes with preliminary technical preparation (copying, pencil preparation, etc.).
The Expert’s Help in the Technical Due Diligence
The main task of the expert during the technical due diligence is to determine the method of manufacture and the authenticity of the document, as well as to identify the fact of forgery. In practice, it is not possible to detect the fact of a forgery of a document without a forensic examination of documents unless there is a gross forgery of a seal or signature. The need for a technical examination of a document arises when there are doubts about the authenticity of the document; that is, it is assumed that changes were made to the document after signing or the document was created using editing.
When conducting a technical examination of technical due diligence, the expert establishes the details of the document (including images, texts applied in any way, various printing, etc.) and materials of the document under study (materials mean the basis of the document, writing tools, auxiliary elements for fastening sheets, the presence of erasing and etching substances on document).