Perlman Communications, Ltd.
Areas of Expertise: Linguistics
LINGUISTIC FORENSICS: AREAS OF EXPERTISE
• Contracts, wills, or other binding documents: Dr. Perlman analyzes specific words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and other units,including the entire document, to offer informed judgments on clarity, comprehensibility, and (un)ambiguity.
Case example: A man suffered damages from defective rental equipment; he did not know that he had released the company from liability by signing a contract that was, in my judgment, too complex to understand.
• Authorship: Dr. Perlman conducts analysis of a language sample-the grammar, lexicon, and other features — to offer an informed judgment of texts, in order to offer informed judgment on the authorship of anonymous, forged, or otherwise disputed documents.
Case examples: anonymous letters of complaint to a company's Board; forged letters (by a single author) in employment dispute.
• Plagiarism: Dr. Perlman compares and examines texts to determine the likelihood of plagiarism.
Case example: The creator of an online course found it stolen and being offered by someone else. Dr. Perlman helped substantiate his charges.
• Copyright/trademark: Dr. Perlman helps attorneys define the semantic points at issue, and he offers informed judgment on the genericity, specificity, and/or protectability of contested material. He also assesses the similarity of names/marks to offer informed judgments in infringement litigation.
Case example: Dr. Perlman demonstrated that another marketer's brand name was, on several linguistic levels, similar to that of the attorney's client.