Method and apparatus for updating rules and transmitting change notifications

• US 20060173917A1
• Filed: 12/28/2005
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aderant CompuLaw LLC (Varnum LLP)
• Original Assignee: Compulaw LLC
• Inventors: Rains, Ricky J., Kalmick, David J., Manners, Alexander J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,302,433 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/929 Docketing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/951 Calendar or scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A method and apparatus for generating court dates. A Date Calculation Engine (DCE) is coupled to a court date server and a court rule database for generation of court dates. The court rule database includes formulas written in a Date Calculation Scripting Language (DCSL) for calculating the court dates. The court rules further include instructions for generating a Jurisdiction Selection Expert (JSE) and an Event Selection Expert (ESE) that enable a user to quickly select a jurisdiction and an event using hierarchal data structures. The DCE is combined with other software components to build a complete court date server system. The court rule database is maintained up-to-date with the latest changes to the rules. Deadlines affected by any rule changes are automatically identified and recalculated, and customers for whom the deadlines were calculated automatically notified to inform them of the changed deadlines.

Claims

1. A method for generating and transmitting a calendar of different legal events capable of occurring in the course of a legal proceeding, the method comprising:

maintaining in a database rules for calculating event dates for a plurality of different legal events;

receiving an initial trigger date for an initial trigger legal event;

selecting at least one of the rules from the database based on the initial trigger legal event;

retrieving from the database date calculation instructions for the selected rule;

calculating an event date of an associated legal event based on the retrieved date calculation instructions and the initial trigger date;

transmitting the calculated event date to a user client;

monitoring the database for a change in the rules;

automatically identifying at least one of the plurality of different legal events affected by the change in the rules;

automatically recalculating an event date for the identified at least one of the plurality of different legal events based on the change in the rules; and

transmitting the recalculated event date to the user client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the rules is a change to date calculation instructions for the identified at least one of the plurality of different legal events.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining a relationship table storing relationship information for a plurality of the rules, the relationship table indicating whether a particular rule is related to another rule; and

updating relationship information in the relationship table based on the change in the rules.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a customer affected by the recalculated event date; and

notifying the customer of the recalculated event date.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

calculating a fee for recalculating the event date; and

charging a user account based on the calculated fee.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating calculates a plurality of event dates for a plurality of interrelated legal events.

7. A method for generating and transmitting a calendar of different legal events capable of occurring in the course of a legal proceeding, the method comprising:

maintaining a database storing rules associated with a plurality of different legal events;

receiving rule update information;

updating rules in the rules database based on the rule update information;

determining whether a particular rule update is an update potentially affecting at least one existing deadline calculated for at least one of the plurality of different legal events;

responsive to the determination, recalculating the existing deadline based on the particular rule update;

identifying a customer affected by the recalculated deadline; and

notifying the customer of the recalculated deadline.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the particular rule update is an update to date calculation instructions used to calculate the at least one existing deadline.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the rule update information identifies a rule set affected by the update, and further identifies the update as an event maintenance update or a non-event maintenance update, the event maintenance update potentially affecting at least one existing deadline calculated for at least one of the plurality of different legal events.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the rule update information identifies one or more changed or new formulas for the rule set.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the updating the rules in the rules database includes:

determining whether a formula identified by the rule update information exists in the rules database;

responsive to a determination that the identified formula exists in the rules database, making changes to the formula in the rules database;

responsive to a determination that the identified formula does not exist in the rules database, adding the identified formula in the rules database;

determining whether the change or addition of the identified formula is an event maintenance or non-event maintenance update based on the identification of the associated rule set as an event maintenance update or a non-event update; and

responsive to a determination that the change or addition of the identified formula is an event maintenance update, storing information on the changed or added formula as event maintenance change information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the recalculating the existing deadline includes:

tracking calculated deadlines and formulas used for calculating the deadlines in customer-specific transaction records;

identifying the changed formula from the event maintenance change information;

identifying a customer-specific transaction record including the changed formula; and

recalculating a deadline in the customer-specific transaction record based on the changed formula.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the recalculating the existing deadline includes:

tracking calculated deadlines and formulas used for calculating the deadlines in customer-specific transaction records;

identifying the new formula from the event maintenance change information;

querying a formula relationship table for determining a related formula referenced by the new formula;

identifying a customer-specific transaction record including the related formula;

calculating a new event date based on the new formula; and

adding the new event date in the identified customer-specific transaction record.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the rule update information includes a list of holidays and associated dates for the rule set.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the updating the rules in the rules database includes:

determining whether a holiday identified in the list of holidays exists in the rules database;

responsive to a determination that the identified holiday exists in the rules database, and that a date for the holiday in the list of holidays differs from a date for the holiday in the rule update information, changing the date of the holiday in the rules database and storing information for the holiday change as event maintenance change information; and

responsive to a determination that the identified holiday does not exist in the rules database, adding the identified holiday in the rules database and storing information for the holiday addition as event maintenance change information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the recalculating the existing deadline includes:

tracking calculated deadlines and formulas used for calculating the deadlines in customer-specific transaction records;

identifying an earliest holiday date and a latest holiday date from the event maintenance change information;

identifying a customer-specific transaction record including a deadline between the identified earliest holiday date and the identified latest holiday date; and

verifying the deadline based on holiday change or addition.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the rule update information includes a list of deleted formulas in the rule set.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the updating the rules in the rules database includes:

determining whether a formula identified in the list of deleted formulas exists in the rules database;

responsive to a determination that the identified formula exists in the rules database, deleting the formula in the rules database; and

storing information on the deleted formula as event maintenance change information.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the recalculating the existing deadline includes:

tracking calculated deadlines and formulas used for calculating the deadlines in customer-specific transaction records;

identifying the deleted formula from the event maintenance change information;

identifying a customer-specific transaction record including the identified formula; and

deleting the identified formula and a deadline calculated by the identified formula from the customer-specific transaction record.