About
Executive Summary
Reasoning, Inc. delivers high-level forensic linguistic expertise for legal, corporate, and assessment-based contexts. Led by Dr. Timothy Habick, we specialize in the linguistic analysis of documents, trademarks, authorship, and communication practices. Our work is defined by ethical rigor, methodological clarity, and a commitment to helping clients understand, defend, or challenge language-based evidence—always grounded in science-based standards.
We specialize in evaluations of high-stakes documents such as contracts, surveys, and expert witness reports. Our investigations use linguistic evidence to determine whether questioned textual materials comply with professional standards of clarity, efficiency, and fairness.
We also vigorously defend the communicative adequacy of questioned documents that can be shown to meet the applicable standards.
Since 2000, Reasoning, Inc. has worked with major testing organizations to help create clear, fair, and culturally relevant assessments, achieving successful outcomes that align with professional standards. Clients have included the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), Educational Testing Service (ETS), and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), among others. We will apply the same commitment to communicative efficiency, precision, and appropriateness to your case.
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Services Offered
• Trademark Disputes: We assess acoustic, phonetic, phonological, lexical, morphological, semantic, and graphic similarities to determine the degree of potential consumer confusion.
• Defamation Analysis: We determine whether derogatory communications satisfy the linguistic criteria for assertions of fact or expressions of opinion, documenting the severity of meaning elements injurious to reputation.
• Authorship Attribution: Using corpus-based and other applicable methodologies, we identify unique linguistic patterns for author identification. We also provide informed opinions on the authorship attributions proposed by other researchers in terms of their sampling, analyses, and congruence with linguistic science.
• Survey Analysis: We analyze surveys and customer response forms for logical, linguistic, pragmatic, and psychometric defects that impact validity.
• Document Evaluation: We evaluate contract terms and other formal communications to determine their single best interpretation, if any.
• Dialectal and Sociolinguistic Issues: We offer expert insight into regional and social language variations and can opine on the most likely and reasonable interpretation of particular speech acts in context.
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Notable Case Experience
• Nationwide Insurance & Major International Trade Disputes: Conducted authorship attribution analyses for prominent firms.
• United States v. Tyshon Bey (U.S. District Court, Trenton, NJ): Provided expert testimony on discourse analysis.
• Seals v. State of Mississippi: Contributed linguistic and psychometric evidence to support a claim of unfair educational practices.
• Trademark and Defamation Cases: Worked with Seed IP, Perkins Coie, and Pisanelli-Bice on various trademark and defamation cases.
• Randall Keener et al. v. Second Round Sub, LLC: Defended the communicative sufficiency of a time-barred debt letter.
• Lites v. Amazon.com Services, LLC: Provided evidence showing the communicative inadequacy of Amazon's COBRA election form for separated employees.
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What Sets Reasoning, Inc. Apart
• Ethical Integrity: We only support claims grounded in sufficient appropriate linguistic evidence. If the evidence does not support the case, we provide clear, timely feedback to help refine strategy.
• Cross-Disciplinary Expertise: Our work integrates linguistics, psychometrics, logic, and standards of evidence drawn from fields such as auditing, testing, and expert testimony.
• Proven Litigation Support: From federal court testimony to international trademark and defamation disputes, our analyses have contributed to favorable outcomes in high-stakes proceedings.
• Clarity in Complexity: We specialize in resolving ambiguity—whether assessing authorship, evaluating legal texts, or exposing flaws in AI-detection software.
• Client-Focused Strategy: We guide clients in making informed decisions, avoiding unsupported claims, and understanding what the evidence can—and cannot—demonstrate.
• Standards-Driven Practice: We uphold the highest professional standards, ensuring that all opinions are transparent, defensible, and grounded in accepted linguistic science.
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Authorship Attribution Feasibility
Reasoning, Inc. offers timely and cost-effective feasibility studies for individuals and organizations seeking guidance on whether sufficient appropriate linguistic evidence might support an authorship attribution claim—particularly one involving social media or other informal texts.
Before engaging a practitioner to conduct a full-scale (and often costly) authorship analysis, it might be prudent to request a preliminary determination of feasibility. Our study evaluates whether the available materials suggest even the potential for a reliable linguistic signal. Based on our findings, we will recommend appropriate next steps—whether that involves further analysis, additional data collection, or referral to an ethical practitioner with the statistical tools and evidentiary standards necessary for formal proceedings.
If Reasoning finds no meaningful indication of authorship evidence, it is highly unlikely that another analyst will be able to produce findings that would be compelling to courts, juries, or other decision-makers.
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Trademark Analysis Methodology
We assess acoustic, linguistic, and pragmatic information for precise trademark analyses. Our methodology:
• Defines measurable features of competing marks for objective comparison.
• Quantifies overlaps in acoustic, semantic, and graphic domains to assess potential confusion.
• Uses spectrographic evidence to highlight acoustic issues when necessary.
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Defamation Expertise
We determine whether potentially defamatory communications qualify as assertions of fact and assess the potential harm to an individual's reputation when publicized. (We are not business valuation specialists and do not attempt to determine the economic value of damages.)
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AI-Detection Expertise
Dr. Habick provided expert analysis in Krupa Patel v. Tulane University, a case resolved immediately after receipt of his report. The case involved AI-detection software falsely identifying a medical student’s essay as AI-generated. Dr. Habick's report demonstrated that current AI-detection tools frequently misclassify text authored by highly proficient second-language speakers as AI-generated, due to similarities in lexical richness, syntactic diversity, and grammatical complexity. His findings illuminated biases and limitations inherent in AI-detection tools, underscoring their inability to reliably evaluate texts without human linguistic expertise.
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Experience in Multilingual and Bilingual Contexts
Our team’s deep understanding of multilingual issues derives from extensive personal and professional experience. For many years, we helped to create examinations in French, Spanish, and other languages. We helped to translate the GRE General Test into its Spanish version, the PAEG. We have also contributed extensively to the language examinations of the TOEFL program, a cornerstone of English language proficiency testing. In collaboration with a leading peer reviewer who worked for the Defense Language Institute for many years, we have wide-ranging practical experience in crafting multilingual materials for educational and assessment purposes.
Dr. Habick’s abilities in French, Spanish, and Chinese, as well as our experience with bilingual education cases, put us in a position to navigate complex multilingual disputes. In Chu v. Rubin, we authored the "Principles Promoting Trilingualism" report, which outlined a principled basis to make realistic and compassionate choices regarding a child's bilingual educational programs. We identified solutions to achieve the parents' goal of trilingual fluency for their child. Our insights ensure that language acquisition and educational strategies align with both cultural and linguistic best practices.
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Scientific, Medical, and Industrial Testing Expertise
Reasoning, Inc. has developed and refined examinations and assessment tools for a variety of specialized fields. We designed a comprehensive suite of examinations for the Building Performance Institute, addressing critical skills for professionals in building science. Additionally, we contributed to the development of the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Tests, ensuring that these assessments accurately reflect the required knowledge and competencies for practitioners. Our extensive work with scientific, medical, and industrial testing demonstrates our ability to align linguistic clarity and technical precision with the unique demands of these domains.
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Rebuttals of Expert Witness Reports
• Logical Evidence: In a major international case, we exposed over a dozen logical fallacies in the opposing expert's report, demonstrating attempts to mislead the court and a lack of sufficient appropriate linguistic evidence.
• Pragmatic and Psychometric Evidence: In Zimmer, Inc. v. Zimmer MedizinSystems Corporation, we demonstrated that the plaintiff's expert witness report, which relied on an extensive $80,000 survey and otherwise competent psychometric analysis, was based on a false assumption and thus had no probative value. We established that the psychometric report had a fatal sampling deficiency that led only to trivial conclusions that were valueless to the trademark dispute.
• Sociolinguistic and Corpus Evidence: In Malaysia Civil Suit No.: MA-22NCVC-10-02/2020, we showed that the complainant's expert had selected a materially inappropriate reference group for authorship identification purposes. We documented that the linguist's two reports relied on flawed random sampling techniques as well as on a sociolinguistically inappropriate corpus.
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Unique Expertise in Linguistics, Logic, and Standards of Evidence
Reasoning, Inc. combines linguistic precision and logical analysis with a deep appreciation of professional standards of evidence, as exemplified by generally accepted auditing and accounting principles. These experiences, along with extensive involvement in the development of assessments that evaluate reasoning skills, form the foundation of our rigorous approach to forensic linguistic services.
We emphasize the forensic linguist's responsibility to design and conduct linguistic research in a way that yields sufficient appropriate evidence to support each conclusion offered.
Founded by a team of linguists and logicians with decades of experience in shaping high-stakes standards, Reasoning, Inc. delivers clear, compelling, and evidence-based solutions, grounded in a steadfast commitment to meticulous analysis and fairness.
Reasoning, Inc. continuously refines its methods and tools, integrating advancements in linguistic science, psychometrics, and forensic methodologies. You can trust us to meet or exceed all professional standards of practice in our efforts to help our clients address their language-related challenges.
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Commitment to Ethical Practice
At Reasoning, Inc., we are committed to ethical and transparent communication. We offer science-based analyses and only support cases for which sufficient appropriate linguistic evidence is available or discoverable. If the evidence doesn't support your case, we will provide timely, candid feedback to help you to refine your strategies and avoid pursuing misguided argumentation in litigation. Our dedication to fairness ensures that all opinions are based on rigorous standards and integrity.
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Contact Information
To discuss your case or request a preliminary consultation, contact Dr. Timothy Habick:
• Email: thabick@reasoninginc.com
• Phone: (215) 275-5388
We look forward to partnering with you to address your language-related concerns. Every case deserves clarity, fairness, and principled analysis—and we are here to provide it.