Method and apparatus for court date calculation engine

• US 7,171,416 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2002
• Issued: 01/30/2007
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): DINH, KHANH Q
• Application Number:
  US10/201,563
• Publication Number:
  US 20030182169A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,653 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 705/26, 705/75, 707/104.1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/10, 707/6, 709/224, 709/226, 709/238, 709/248, 709/227, 709/217, 709/219, 715/513
• US Class Current: 707/702
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• 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.

Claims

1. A method for calculating dates of different legal events capable of occurring in the course of a legal proceeding, the method comprising:

maintaining in a database at least one base calculation statement and a plurality of secondary statements for processing a result of a calculation performed by said at least one base calculation statement, one of the secondary statements adjusting the result of the calculation performed by said at least one base calculation statement by a preselected number of calculation units;

receiving a trigger date for a trigger legal event;

retrieving a particular base calculation statement and one or more of the secondary statements from the database based on the trigger legal event;

determining an event date of a particular legal event by calculating a first date based on the particular base calculation statement and the trigger date, and automatically adjusting the first date by the preselected number of calculation units corresponding to the one or more of the secondary statements; and

storing the event date in the data store.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger legal event is related to a branching trigger event, the method further comprising calculating a plurality of additional court dazes for the branching trigger event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the base calculation statement and secondary statements are written in a scripting language.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event data by the select number of calculation units in a specified direction.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to a specified day of the week.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to a next court workday.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to a previous court workday.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to a date defined at a matter level.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to the end of a week.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to the beginning of a week.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is an assignment statement for assigning a value to a variable.

12. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one base calculation statement is a statement to calculate a date based on another date.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to complete a date using a specified formula.

14. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to find a difference in days between two dates.

15. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to delete a date calculated using a specified formula.

16. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to retrieve a daze of an event whose calculation is based on a specified formula.

17. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a date conditional statement.

18. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a conditional statement testing the existence of a date.

19. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to return a latest date from a set of dates.

20. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to mark a date so that the date is superseded by calculation of another date.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of secondary statements includes a first variable for identifying an adjust command, a second variable for identifying an offset amount or direction, a third variable for identifying a type of calculation unit to consider in the adjustment, and a fourth variable for identifying a base date from which to base the adjustment.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the type of calculation unit to consider is a court working day.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the type of calculation unit to consider is a calendar day.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the secondary statements is a special date calculation statement associated with a particular matter identifier, the method further comprising

retrieving the special date calculation statement based on a matter identifier associated with a current date calculation session;

and

adjusting the event date based on the special date calculation statement.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the secondary statements is a comparison statement for comparing two or more dates and returning a resultant date based on the comparison, the method further comprising:

receiving a second trigger date for a second trigger legal event;

retrieving a second base calculation statement from the database based on the second trigger legal event;

calculating a second event date based on the second base calculation statement and the second trigger date;

comparing the event date and the second event date based on the comparison statement; and

returning one of the compared event dates for storing in a data store.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein a formulas table stores the at least one base calculation statement and the plurality of secondary statements, and a relationship table stores relationship information for a plurality of the different legal events, the relationship table including an entry for each of the plurality of different legal events for identifying a related legal event, the method further comprising:

querying the relationship table and identifying entries of one or more legal events related to the trigger legal event;

retrieving from the formulas table one or more base calculation statements for the one or more related legal events identified in the relationship table; and

calculating one or more event dates for the one or more related legal events based on the one or more base calculation statements.

28. The data processing system of claim 22, wherein the trigger legal event is related to a branching trigger event, the program instructions further comprising instructions for calculating a plurality of additional court dates for the branching trigger event.

47. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to return an earliest date from a set of dates.

27. A data processing system for calculating dates of different legal events capable of occurring in the course of a legal proceeding by a date calculation engine, comprising:

a data store storing at least one base calculation statement and a plurality of secondary statements for processing a result of calculation performed by said at least one base calculation statement, one of the secondary statements adjusting the result of the calculation performed by said at least one base calculation statement by a preselected number of calculation units;

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor and having program instructions stored therein, the processor being operable to execute the program instructions, the program instructions including;

receiving a trigger date for a trigger legal event;

retrieving a particular base calculation statement and one or more of the secondary statements from the database on the trigger legal event;

determining an event date a particular legal event by calculating a first date based on the particular base calculation statement and the trigger date, and automatically adjusting the first date by the preselected number of calculation units corresponding to the one or more of the secondary statements; and

storing the event date in the data store.

29. The data processing system of claim 27, wherein the base calculation statement and secondary statements are written in a scripting language.

30. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event data by the selected number of calculation units in a specified direction.

31. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to a specified day of the week.

32. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to a next court workday.

33. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to a previous court workday.

34. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to a date defined at a matter level.

35. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to the end of a week.

36. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to adjust the event date to the beginning of a week.

37. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is an assignment statement for assigning a value to a variable.

38. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein the at least one base calculation statement is a statement to calculate a date bused on another date.

39. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to complete a date using a specified formula.

40. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to find a difference in days between two dates.

41. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to delete a date calculated using a specified formula.

42. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to retrieve a date of an event whose calculation is based on a specified formula.

43. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a date conditional statement.

44. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a conditional statement testing the existence of a date.

45. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to return a latest date from a set of dates.

46. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to mark a date so that the date is superseded by calculation of another date.

48. The data processing system of claim 29, wherein one of the secondary statements is a statement to return an earliest date from a set of dates.

49. A method for calculating dates of different legal events capable of occurring in the course of a legal proceeding, the method comprising:

maintaining in a database at least one base calculation statement and a plurality of secondary statements for processing a result of a calculation performed by said at least one base calculation statement, one of the secondary statements adjusting the result of the calculation performed by said at least one base calculation statement by a preselected number of calculation units;

receiving a trigger date for a trigger legal event;

retrieving a particular base calculation statement from the database based on the trigger legal event;

calculating an event date of the one or more identified legal events based on the particular base calculation statement and the trigger date;

adjusting the event date by the Preselected number of units based on said one of the secondary statements; and

storing the adjusted event date in a data store, wherein each of the base calculation statements includes a first variable for identifying a calculation command, a second variable for identifying an offset amount or direction, a third variable for identifying a type of calculation unit to consider in the calculation, and a fourth variable for identifying a base date from which to base the calculation.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the type of calculation unit to consider is a court working day.

51. The method of claim 49, wherein the type of calculation unit to consider is a calendar day.