Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Electronic negotiation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-11
2004-07-20
Trammell, James P. (Department: 3621)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Electronic negotiation
C705S001100, C705S037000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06766307
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to dispute resolution and more specifically relates to a system for providing complete non-judicial dispute resolution management and procedures.
There are numerous conventional means whereby parties involved in a legal dispute may attempt to resolve such dispute, or settle the case. These means include, for example, using the public court system (including small claims court), or non-judicial dispute resolution. However, the public's confidence in the court system seems to have deteriorated over the years. Moreover, the time required to bring a dispute to resolution has become inordinately long. Finally, and perhaps most import of all, the costs associated with a litigation are very high and, in many cases, discourage a legitimate complainant from seeking redress. Consequently, parties and, thus, the legal community have continuously sought to find “a better way” to resolve disputes than through the courts.
In the age of computerization, attempts have been made within the legal community to streamline handling of disputes on behalf of claimants. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,687 to Wamsley, et al. discloses a technique for computerized management of a plaintiff's personal injury case. The technique includes establishing works reflective of each phase of a personal injury claim, including a pre-negotiation phase, a technique to generate a demand letter and calculate settlement amounts based on information gathered in the record during handling of the claim. However, the Wamsley, et al. “Personal Injury Claim Management System” does not provide an architecture for operation and management of non-judicially handled claims, and, thus, is sorely bereft of the capacity to service a significant number of disputes arising in our society. (In the context of the present invention, “non-judicial” means originated and/or handled outside of the court system—although a court may be involved at some point in the dispute, e.g., to sign a document, order implementation, etc).
In recent years the attempt to bypass the judicial system has resulted in systems and organizations to settle cases without going to court. As part of procedures developed to carry out settlement, parties have been offered the ability to have a dispute mediated, usually by a third party who can be referred to as a mediator. Mediation permits each party to tell its story and even propose a settlement figure when appropriate (which can be made known or kept secret by the mediator).
Another method of resolving a dispute outside the courts is by arbitration. Arbitration can be carried out by a single arbitrator or by a panel of arbitrators. The procedure used for arbitration can be somewhat complex, depending on the rules of arbitration agreed to by the parties. The level of participation by a mediator or an arbitrator (or panel of arbitrators) can vary widely depending on the scenario selected by the parties. Generally, this rather wide range of unspecified possibilities has been referred to as alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
As part of ADR, or adjunct thereto, parties have, from time to time, participated in blind-bid scenarios which mean that each party to a dispute submits a bid without the other party(ies) knowing its bid. The bids are evaluated with a view to settling the dispute. If the bids are sufficiently close or fall within a pre-arranged relationship, the dispute can be settled. If not, additional bidding can be provoked. Bid reception and evaluation can be effected by a judge, a mediator, an arbitrator, or even electronically. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,7615,269 to Micali, which describes an electronic communications method for resolving a transaction when bids from at least two parties come within a predetermined relationship. Similarly, an on line dispute resolution company, CyberSettle.Com Inc., has made available a web site which accepts three (3) bids from each party, compares the bids to determine whether they are within an agreed-upon range, and reports settlement or provokes a “last chance” bid.
In any event, even use of the extensive array of non-judicial dispute resolution techniques can prove to be unwieldy and/or cost-ineffective, especially from the perspective of an organization such as an insurance company and/or claims department and/or law firm which handles many (and varied) disputes on behalf of one or more parties. Non-judicial dispute resolution includes so many possible procedural schemes that it unduly complicates standard claim handling in a traditional judicial agency such as those enumerated in the previous sentence. Thus, there is a tremendous need for providing a system whereby a complete array of non-judicial dispute resolution techniques are simultaneously made available and managed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a unique system which enables adverse parties to conduct and manage a full array of non-judicial dispute resolution. The present invention includes an electronic architecture which receives, sorts, and stores data related to non-judicial dispute resolution. This architecture enables implementation and management of a full range of non-judicial dispute resolution procedures between two or more adverse parties to a dispute. “Full range of non-judicial dispute resolution procedures” includes bid-style negotiations, mediation, and arbitration.
The system can be accessible electronically via wired and/or wireless communications, and is preferably accessible via the internet. In one particular embodiment, the system is accessible over the internet via a link provided in a web site of another entity. When wireless communications is used for access, any viable frequencies available from the electromagnetic spectrum can be used, e.g., radio frequency, microwave, UHF, and other frequencies.
The architecture itself includes a management module, configured to receive, sort and store dispute resolution data and to provide internal continuous compilation of such data and new data generated during non-judicial dispute resolution procedures.
The architecture also includes a reckoning module connected to and/or electronically associated with (e.g., including a computerized relationship) the management module for receipt of dispute resolution data, and is designed to implement a selected resolution procedure and to transmit to the management module new data generated during a resolution procedure.
The system can be accessed in response to the biographical data input by at least one of the parties. The biographical data can include personal and/or organization-identification information and/or one or more of an account number, username, a password, etc., and can be verified by the system.
In one embodiment, the access is a tiered leveled access having at least a program manager access and a program user access. The program manager access can include a plurality of selectable actions such as, for example and not limited hereby, adding users, modifying existing user data, transferring active cases from one user to another, activating users, modifying account registration data, browsing all disputes, generating detailed dispute reports, generating summary reports of disputes, browsing dispute resolution cases, as well as other actions which are used by a manager of non-judicial dispute resolutions, and any combination of one or more of the foregoing. The management module can provide relevant data to a program manager in response to an appropriate signal selected by the program manager.
In the case of program user access, a plurality of selectable options can be made available such as, e.g., adding a dispute, responding to a dispute, browsing disputes, generating dispute reports, generating summary reports, as well as any other options required by a case manager of a dispute and any combinations of one or more of such options. Other options can be included and the possibilities are not limited by those set forth above. The management module provides relevant data to the program use
Israel Roy
Specht Willem F.
clickNsettle.com, Inc.
Hoffmann & Baron , LLP
Reagan James A.
Trammell James P.
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