Handwriting Analysis: Where Do I Start??

Start by reading the following highly entertaining law review articles, which give an excellent account of the history of handwriting analysis. In their seminal 1989 article, Risinger, Denbbeaux, and Saks argue that handwriting analysis has never been adequately validated. They make the provocative suggestion that believing in the accuracy of handwriting analysis is about as scientific as believing in witchcraft.

One of those provoked was Andre A. Moenssens, who responded with a florid attack on Risinger et al. coupled with a rather lame defense of handwriting analysts. In two articles responding to Moenssens, Risinger et al. administer the most damaging critique in the history of legal scholarship, systematically demolishing his arguments and exposing this most prominent defender of handwriting analysis as misguided. This is legal scholarship at its best!

D. Michael Risinger, Mark Denbeaux and Michael J. Saks, Exorcism of Ignorance as a Proxy for Rational Knowledge: The Lessons of Handwriting Identification Expertise, 137 U.Pa. L.Rev. 731 (1989). 

D. Michael Risinger and Michael J. Saks Science and Nonscience in the Courts: Daubert Meets Handwriting Identification Expertise with D. Michael Risinger, 82 IOWA LAW REVIEW 21 (1996).

Andre A. Moenssens, Handwriting Identification Evidence In The Post-Daubert World, 66 U.M.K.C. L.Rev.251 (1997).

D. Michael Risinger, Mark Denbeaux and Michael J. Saks, Brave New 'Post-Daubert World' - a Reply to Professor Moenssens, 29 SETON HALL LAW REVIEW 405 (1998).