Daily Law Tips (Tip 449) by Onyekachi Umah, Esq., LLM. ACIArb(UK)
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*THE 4 FACTS COURTS MUST CONSIDER IN EVALUATING EXPERT OPINIONS ON HANDWRITING AND SIGNATURES ON WILLS *
Courts are designed to consider and evaluate facts and issues before it in reaching judgments. Often in cases of WILL, there are arguments as genuineness of handwriting or signature of the maker of WILL.
“It is the duty of the trial court to evaluate the evidence of the handwriting expert on the genuineness of the alleged signature on the Will. In doing so the learned trial Judge must keep the following facts in view.
1. Expert opinion on the genuineness of a signature should be received with caution especially if there are witnesses who come to court to say they saw the deceased sign the Will.
2. Hardly anyone signs in the same way all the time.
3. Tests conducted by handwriting experts, comparing handwritings and signature are merely tentative in character, and
4. Opinion evidence of an expert is weak evidence this is so because it is the evidence of a person who calls himself an expert.
Now the bottom line is that the court must form its own opinion by also examining the documents in question and look for other positive evidence that would make the handwriting analysts evidence reliable or unreliable. Expert evidence only assists the court in this task.”
My authority is the Court of Appeal decision in the case of MORAYO ODUNEWU V. RISIKAT MARTINS & ORS (2010) LPELR-4683(CA)
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Authored by Ben Ijeoma Adigwe Esq., ACIarb (UK), LL.M, Dip. in Artificial Intelligence, Director at the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Nigeria.
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