The method of claim 28, wherein the step of interpreting the electronic message further includes the steps of:</claim-text> (b1) producing a case model of the electronic message including (i) a set of attributes for identifying specific features of lectronic message; and (ii) message text; (b2) detecting at least one of text, combinations of text, and patterns of text of the electronic message using character matching; (b3) flagging the attributes of the case model which are detected in the electronic message; (b4) comparing the flagged attributes of the case model with stored attributes of stored case models of the case base; (b5) comparing the text of the case model with stored text of the stored case models of the case base; and (b6) assigning a score to each stored case model which is compared with the case model, the score increasing when at least one of the attributes and the text match the stored case model and the score not increasing when at least one of the attributes and the text do not match the stored case model. view more

The method of claim 30, wherein:</claim-text> when at least one of the attributes and the text match the stored case model, the score is increased by a predetermined match weight; and when at least one of the attributes and the text does not match tored case model, the score is decreased by a predetermined mismatch weight. view more

The method of claim 31, wherein each score is normalized by dividing the score by a maximum possible score for the stored case model, where the maximum possible score is determined when all of the attributes and text of the case model and the stored case model match. view more