Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-30
2003-05-20
Amsbury, Wayne (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C705S040000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06567821
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the collection, translation, grouping, and delivery of wage assignment information. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for electronic collection of wage assignment information, translation of the information into an electronic wage assignment format, grouping of the formatted information into files by batching for each respective recipient, and electronic delivery of the batched information files to each respective recipient.
B. Description of the Related Art
If a private or public entity wishes to collect a financial obligation from a particular person, the entity may obtain a judicial order requiring that the person make payments to satisfy the obligation. Frequently, the most common method to satisfy a court-ordered or court-enforced financial obligation is by requiring that the employer withhold a portion of the person's salary in the form of a wage assignment. A wage assignment may be implemented either by manual or electronic means. Manual implementation is the least efficient manner to process a wage assignment. Furthermore, even electronic implementation includes significant temporal and structural inefficiencies, primarily with regard to the collection, translation, grouping, and delivery of the information.
Electronic Implementation of Wage Assignments. Electronic commerce (EC) describes the paperless exchange of business information using electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic funds transfer (EFT), and other means of electronic communication. Of these various types of electronic communication, EDI allows for the accumulation, processing, transmittal, and receipt of business-related information that was once dependent on paper transactions. Generally, EDI describes the computer-to-computer exchange of business information using a public standard. The first such public EDI standard was created by the Transportation Data Coordinating Committee (TDCC), which created the first set of industry EDI standards comprising forty-five transaction sets for the transportation industry. These initial EDI transaction sets provided for the exchange of business information pertaining to ocean, motor, air, and rail carriers and the associated shippers, brokers, customs, freight forwarders, and bankers. Eventually, other business segments soon discovered that EDI was a more cost effective means of communicating business transaction information than paper transactions.
For the computer-to-computer exchange of business transaction information through EDI, however, a standard format is required for reasons of compatibility. Initially, the TDCC standards controlled, but these standards were limited to business transactions in the transportation industry. As the use of EDI expanded, there was a need for a new, broader standard. In response, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) was tasked with the responsibility of creating a new standard, a standard that would include transaction sets for all types of business information. Yet, while ANSI is the coordinator and clearing house for national standards in the United States, ANSI does not write national standards. Instead, ANSI charters organizations, called Accredited Standards Committees (ASCs), to prepare consensus standards. ASCs are composed of voluntary representatives from industry, labor, consumer, and government. Periodically, ANSI charters an ASC to develop a new standard.
One such ASC, the ASC X12, was chartered by ANSI to develop standards for the structure, format, and content of electronic business transactions conducted through EDI. The ASC X12 is administered by the Data Interchange Standards Associations, Inc. (DISA), a not-for-profit corporation. Under the management of DISA, the ASC X12 composed and issued the ANSI X12 standard (i.e., the X12 standard). Pursuant to the X12 standard, each EDI transaction involves the electronic transmission of a business document using a particular transaction set. Thus, the transaction sets (or record sets) in the X12 standard define both the file structure and content format for communicating electronic business transactions using EDI.
Under the X12 standard, there are a number of particular record sets, each set corresponding to a particular type of business transaction. As of 1994, the X12 standard included 187 record sets. Notably, the various record sets of the X12 standard are delineated by specific numeric codes. For example, record set 135 pertains to student loan applications, and record set 813 pertains to electronic tax filing. For purposes of wage assignments, however, record set 521 is the most common type of transaction set, as record set 521 pertains to income or asset offset. Notably, the record set 521 is still under development. Nonetheless, when finally implemented, the 521 record set will make it possible to electronically communicate wage assignment information.
Therefore, under the X12 standard, there is an EDI transaction set for offsets from wages or other income (i.e., the 521 record set) that allows for offsets to wages or other income by means of an electronic implementation of a wage assignment. As described in the Draft Standard for Trial Use, 521 Income or Asset Offset, dated May 15, 1997, hereby incorporated by reference, the record set 521 allows for the input of both the wage transfer instruction as well as other pertinent information related to a wage assignment transaction. The wage transfer instruction and the other information relating to the wage transfer are referred to collectively as wage assignment information. With wage assignment information, an employer may be instructed to withhold automatically a predetermined portion of the wage of a particular employee and to transfer automatically the withheld portion to another person or entity. Thus, for the electronic implementation of a wage assignment, however, the wage assignment information must be collected from an initiating entity; the wage assignment information must then be translated into the proper electronic format; the wage assignment information must then be batched for each recipient; and the wage assignment information must then be delivered to each respective recipient. Furthermore, for this electronic implementation, the initiator of the wage assignment must be capable of sending the wage assignment information in a proper electronic format, and the recipient must be capable of receiving the wage assignment information in an electronic format and then implementing the wage assignment.
However, the present systems and methodologies for the electronic processing of wage assignment information are inefficient and undesirable. These shortcomings are demonstrated by the present systems and methodologies. For purposes of considering the present systems and methodologies for electronic implementation of wage assignment information, an illustration of one common type of wage assignment is used herein as an example, namely, a wage assignment based on a child support obligation. With the present systems and methodologies, pursuant to an order by a judicial entity, a state entity generates a wage assignment order for a noncustodial parent to make child support payments to a custodial parent. In almost all cases, the state entity mails the order to the employer of the noncustodial parent. The employer of the noncustodial parent must then process the wage assignment information, so that a withheld wage portion is automatically removed from the wage of the noncustodial parent. Notably, for purposes of the present systems and methodologies, as set forth below, virtually any type of wage assignment would be similarly treated as in the example of a wage assignment based on a child support obligation.
Collection of Wage Assignment Information. For a typical wage assignment, such as, for example, a child support obligation, a particular state entity is generally responsible for generating the wage assignment orders for every noncustodial parent subject to a w
ACS State & Local Solutions, Inc.
Amsbury Wayne
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
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