Abstract:
A system of hardware and software components and methods of providing a service portal such as a legal service portal are disclosed. For clients, the system offers several advantages including allowing clients to select professionals from a pre-qualified list of professionals, to provide their personal data only once to the system, to have their cases transferred from one professional to another electronically, and the ease of quick response to inquiries and electronic billing. For the legal professionals, the advantages include customized profile pages, membership in an exclusive network of pre-qualified professionals, referral of work, the ability to automate many mundane tasks for filling out various forms with similar customer data, and the ability to safely transfer or receive cases with complete electronic records, and the ability to collaborate with other professionals on a given case.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates generally to networked computer systems and methods for providing professional services and particularly to facilitating cooperation among professionals in providing professional services. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Websites that allow clients to initiate communication with a professional service firm such as a legal firm are known. Many of today&#39;s modern legal firms have their own dedicated websites geared towards listing the services that they provide. Such websites typically include a number of interconnected individual web-pages that provide information on the credentials of a firm&#39;s lawyers, their practice areas, important court cases they have won, the firm&#39;s community involvement, favorable ratings in reputable legal publications or surveys, contact information and the like. 
         [0003]    In addition, websites that provide lists of attorneys specializing in various categories of practice such as personal injury law, real estate law, family law and the like are also known. Such websites are essentially online directories of legal services available in a particular area. The listings can be categorized based on the location of the lawyers or the legal firms, or practice areas or both. 
         [0004]    There are various shortcomings associated with such web based online services. A potential client has little way of ascertaining the information provided, or assessing whether a particular lawyer is suited for his or her purposes. In addition, the client&#39;s particular case may require more than one lawyer, or may involve multiple jurisdictions. 
         [0005]    Accordingly, improvements to existing methods and systems of providing online professional services are desired. It is therefore an object of the following to provide novel methods and systems of providing professional services using various communication technologies that overcome the disadvantages associated with existing systems. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    Embodiments of the present description disclose systems of hardware and software components that provide professional service portals. The system offers several advantages to clients including quotes for services, a pre-qualified list of professionals, ability to reuse their personal data for multiple actions, ability to remotely obtain services in a particular non-local jurisdiction, to transfer their cases from one professional to another electronically, and the ease of quick response to inquiries and electronic billing. For the professionals, the system offers many advantages including, listing their services with customized profile pages, membership in an exclusive network of pre-qualified professionals, referral of work from the system, ability to automate many mundane tasks for filling out various forms with similar or identical customer data, the ability to safely transfer (or receive) cases to other professionals with complete electronic records, and the ability to cooperate on a particular case with other professionals, among other advantages. 
         [0007]    In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of providing a service to a client on a case, using a computer system having data related to the case stored in memory. The system has an account for each of a first professional and a second professional. The data is accessible to the first professional&#39;s account but inaccessible the second professional&#39;s account. The method includes: logging in to the first professional&#39;s account; sending a request message to the second professional&#39;s account requesting the second professional to work on the case; receiving an acceptance message from the second professional&#39;s account indicating acceptance; and upon receiving the acceptance message, making the data accessible to the second professional&#39;s account thereby allowing the second professional to work on the case. 
         [0008]    In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a server having a processor; memory; and a network interface for interconnecting to a computing device through a network. The network interface and memory are coupled to the processor. The memory stores software in the form of processor executable instructions adapting the processor to: maintain an account for each of a client, a first professional and a second professional; receive user input from the device by a user logged into the client&#39;s or the first professional&#39;s account; in response to the user input: store data related to a case associated with the client in the memory such that the data accessible to the first professional&#39;s account but not the second professional&#39;s account; and send a request message to the second professional&#39;s account requesting the second professional to work on the case; receive an acceptance message from the second professional&#39;s account indicating acceptance; and upon receipt of the acceptance message, make the data accessible to the second professional&#39;s account thereby allowing the second professional to work on the case. 
         [0009]    In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computing device for providing a service to a client on a case, comprising: a processor; an input device; memory storing processor executable instructions; and a network interface for interconnection to a server having an account for each of the client, a first professional and a second professional, the server storing data related to the case, the input device, network interface and memory connected to the processor, the instructions adapting the processor to: receive login input through the input device to log into the first professional&#39;s account on the server; send a request message to the second professional&#39;s account requesting the second professional to work on the case; upon receipt of an acceptance message from the second professional&#39;s account indicating acceptance, transmit commands to the server making the data accessible to the second professional&#39;s account thereby allowing the second professional to work on the case. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0010]    Embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: 
           [0011]      FIG. 1A  depicts a simplified block diagram of a networked computerized system exemplary of an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0012]      FIG. 1B  depicts a simplified block diagram of a computing device used in the system of  FIG. 1A ; 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  depicts a simplified data model of entities stored in tables within the database server software depicted in  FIG. 1A ; 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart depicting the sequence of steps that are undertaken to create an account for a professional in the system of  FIG. 1A ; 
           [0015]      FIG. 4A  is an exemplary webpage that may be used to apply for a client account in the system of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0016]      FIG. 4B  is an exemplary webpage that may be used by a client to describe a matter in order to solicit professional advise, using the system of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart that summarizes the steps taken by a professional to accept a client and provide a service using the system of  FIG. 1A ; 
           [0018]      FIG. 6  depicts a flow chart that summarizes the actions taken by a client that would correspond to the steps of the attorney as depicted in  FIG. 5 ; 
           [0019]      FIG. 7  depicts a flowchart that summarizes the actions of a first professional handling a case for a client, that transfers the case to a new professional; 
           [0020]      FIG. 8  depicts a flowchart of the actions taken by a client in a first country, to create a legal case in a second country; 
           [0021]      FIG. 9  depicts a flowchart of the actions taken by an attorney in the first country, to create a legal case in a second country for the client of  FIG. 8 ; 
           [0022]      FIG. 10  depicts a flowchart summarizing the actions of a second attorney in the second country identified in the flowchart of  FIG. 9 ; and 
           [0023]      FIGS. 11A-11B  depict flowcharts summarizing the actions of a first and a second professional collaborating on a case. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0024]    The present invention is directed to a system that allows multiple clients and multiple professionals to interact electronically in a convenient and secure manner. The system thus facilitates secure and trustworthy electronic commerce in the provision of professional services. Some embodiments are described in relation to the particular field of providing legal services. As will be described in later, the system provides clients with a networked environment that allows them to conveniently compare service offerings in an environment that provides many advantages including safeguarding against unqualified solicitors, pricing transparency, receiving collaborative service by two or more professionals, convenient transfer of cases from one attorney to another, avoidance of duplicate data entry, accuracy and many other advantages. Legal professionals are similarly assured of serious prospects, potential for work that is referred by other qualified professionals, collaboration with various other specialists in the legal field, secure collaboration with one or more attorneys working on a single case, transferring cases or receiving cases to and from other professionals, and accurate and centralized record keeping that reduces redundant, error prone data entry activities among other advantages. 
         [0025]      FIG. 1A  depicts a simplified block diagram of a networked computerized system  10  exemplary of an embodiment of the present invention. As depicted, the system  10  has a server computer system that includes a web server  12 , a business logic server  18 , a database server  34 ; and also computing devices  14   a  to  14   d  used by clients and computing devices  16   a  to  16   d  used by professionals. 
         [0026]    Each of the servers  12 ,  18 ,  34  and computing devices  14   a  to  14   d  and devices  16   a  to  16   d  may be a laptop or desktop personal computer, a tablet computer, a smart-phone, a server computer, or any other suitable computing device. An exemplary computing device hardware is depicted in  FIG. 1B . 
         [0027]    As shown in  FIG. 1B , an exemplary computing device hardware includes a processor  70 , memory  72  and a network interface  77  interconnected by an interface circuit  74 . The interface circuit  74  is also used for interconnection with input and output components such as a display  76  which may be a touch screen, and optionally one or more peripherals  78  such as keyboards, electronic mice and the like. The processor  70 , memory  72  and network interface  77  are in electrical communication with one another. The memory  72  may be in the form of volatile and/or non-volatile memory, including for example, a hard disk drive, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), EEPROM, CD-ROM, DVD, flash memory, solid state memory and the like. The interface circuit  74  may include system bus coupling the various computer components or peripherals  78  such as display monitors, keyboards, touch panels, joysticks, mouse or other pointing devices, networking interfaces and the like to the processor  70 . Many types of interface circuits are known including ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), MCA (Micro Channel Architecture), EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture), VLB (VESA Local Bus), PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), PCI-X (Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended), AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express or PCI-e) and the like. The network interface  77  may be a wired or wireless network interface card that allows communication with other computers through a data network such as network  22 . 
         [0028]    Software applications, in the form of processor executable instructions stored in memory forming part of, or at least accessible to, each of web server  12 , business logic server  18 , database server  34 , client computing devices  14   a  to  14   d  and computing devices  16   a  to  16   d  are executed by their respective processors to implement various embodiments of the present invention, as will be detailed later. The software applications, in the form of processor executable instructions, may also be stored in a processor readable medium such as a CD, DVD, USB memory stick, hard-disk or the like, to be loaded onto a computer system to implement the system  10 . 
         [0029]    The network interface  77  of these computing devices may include network interface cards that facilitate wired or wireless connections, such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and/or other suitable network formats, to enable connection to shared or remote drives, one or more networked computers, or other networked devices, input peripherals and the like. A mouse and a keyboard, or alternately a touch surface may be used to provide input using the computing devices. Such input devices may be built-in parts of the computing device, or external peripherals. Many network capable devices capable of running client software applications such as web-browsers are ubiquitous and will be well known to persons skilled in the art. 
         [0030]    In the embodiment depicted in  FIG. 1A , the server computer  12  includes at least a web-server software  30  such as the Apache server or the Internet Information Server (IIS) that allows browser client software (e.g., Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari etc.) running on computing devices  14   a  to  14   d  as well as devices  16   a  to  16   d  to access the system  10  through a network  22  such as the Internet or other wide area networks, campus area networks or the like. In some embodiments, the transmission of data between computing devices  14   a  to  14   d  or  16   a  to  16   d  and server computer  12  may be encrypted to secure the data. A portal running on server computer  12  utilizing a secure protocol such as the widely used Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) can be accessed via a suitable browser and used for data entry, account creation, and various activities to be described later. In addition, database software  36  may be implemented as an encrypted database. 
         [0031]    The business logic server  18  interconnects to the web server  12 . The business logic server  18  includes a number of modules that execute business rules and enforce restrictions associated with different types of clients as well as administrative module. To that end, the business logic server  18  includes an attorney module  20 , a client module  22 , and a number of specialized vendor modules  24  such as a paralegal module  24   a , a bonding service module  24   b  and the like, that are customized for specific types of users such as paralegals, bond service providers, draftspersons, translators and the like that may be involved in a particular legal case. 
         [0032]    The business rules server  18  may also include a case management module  26  that allows cases to be created and managed by the responsible attorney. The server  18  also includes an administrative module  28  that may be used to create, maintain and manage user accounts and related administrative functions such as creating or deleting user accounts for users of the system, specifying account types, access levels and privileges for user accounts (e.g., client account, professional account, vendor account, or administrator level permission, read-only permission, read-write permission etc.), data backup and recovery related functions and the like. In addition a billing module  32  in server  18  may be used for billing related functions. In some embodiments, the billing module  32  includes payment identifiers associated with external accounts such as credit card accounts, bank deposit account numbers, PayPal account numbers and the like. However, in other embodiments, the payment identifiers can be prepaid accounts, credit line accounts and/or custom deposit accounts that are maintained within system  10 . 
         [0033]    The business rules server  18  interacts with the database server  34  that provides data repository or data store for persistent data. As is well known, persistent data is required for applications that reuse saved data across multiple sessions. The database server  34  of course includes at least one database software  36  which may be relational database management software (RDBMS) such as a MySQL server, Oracle server, Microsoft SQL Server database or alternatives. The database software  36  may also be implemented as object-oriented database server software in alternate embodiments, instead of an RDBMS as described herein. 
         [0034]    In addition to computing devices  14   a  to  14   d  and computing devices  16   a  to  16   d  that access the business rule server  18  via the web-server software  30  through the network  22 , dedicated administrative computing devices such as computing device  33  can also be used to directly access the business rule server  18 . In some embodiments, computing device  33  and business rules server  18  may be connected in a local area network and may reside in the same physical location. 
         [0035]    The system  10  may additionally interact with other servers including an email server as well as instant messaging server (not shown), and other servers to provide communication, archiving, backup and other auxiliary services including web services and other software as a service (SaaS) offerings from third parties. In addition one or more of the modules in business server  18  may be provided by third parties in other embodiments. 
         [0036]    As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, a data model such as entity-relationship (ER) diagrams or database table diagrams may be used to model the entities involved in the design of a particular database schema to handle the persistent data associated with the functions of the system  10 . 
         [0037]      FIG. 2  depicts a simplified exemplary data model  40  of entities  42  stored in tables within the databases hosted in database software  36  and relationships  44  that indicate interrelationships between the entities  42 . The entities  42  in data model  40  include legal professionals such as attorneys, paralegals, translators, court recorders, patent agencies, legal firms, and the like. The entities  42  in data model  40  also include clients, legal and/or geographic jurisdictions, legal qualifications or certifications, legal institutions such as law schools or patent offices or individual courts; legal cases, vendors and the like. The vendor entity includes service providers to clients such as bond service providers, financing firms and the like. 
         [0038]    The relationships  44  may include attorney-case relationships, attorney-client relationships, jurisdiction-attorney relationships, case-court relationships and the like. A subset of these relationships  44  is represented by the set of arrow lines interconnecting the various representative entities depicted in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0039]    Of course each entity includes many attributes, often implemented as columns within tables, which characterize the entity. For example a legal professional entity, such as an attorney may include many attributes including attorney name, attorney address and current hourly rate. In addition to attributes, relationships are used to indicate law schools attended, bar admissions, other certifications such as academic degrees, registration as patent agent, or other specialized training certifications and the like. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the art that there are various alternative ways of representing relationships including dedicated relationship tables, columns restricted to having foreign key entries and the like depending on whether the relationship is one-to-many, many-to-many, optional, or required. 
         [0040]    In addition a legal professional may be related to single calendar entity that allows his or her availability to be made available for use by other modules in the system when creating associations, cases and the like. 
         [0041]    Membership in system  10  is voluntary. However, embodiments of the system  10  impose qualification criteria on professionals who wish to join system  10 . In one exemplary embodiment, when a prospective attorney wishes to join the system, the attorney provides information about his or her professional credentials such as legal training, bar admission, and areas of law in which he practices, among other data such as residency or citizenship, to the system  10 . The prospective attorney may use a web-page or a sequence of web-pages to provide the data to the system. Alternately, a predefined electronic form may be filled out and sent to a dedicated email address which is received in system  10 . The data provided may include, for example, the number of years in practice, year of bar admission, nature of the practice whether in-house, in a boutique legal firm, general services large firm, sole practice or the like. 
         [0042]    After the prospective attorney&#39;s data including credentials data input is gathered, one or more people may be assigned to investigate the supplied credentials. Alternately the system may be internetworked with relevant external databases to automatically authenticate or verify the supplied prospect data. The prospective attorney&#39;s data may thus include some required data fields and other optional data fields. 
         [0043]    The system  10  may perform a series of checks including whether all required data have been supplied by a prospective member. The data are further checked for ensure accuracy. As noted just above, these may involve manual and/or automated processes such as consulting public records, checking law school records, comparison with data in private or public databases, interviews and/or written correspondences with the prospective attorney as well as document submissions. Such checking may also be sent electronically to an external party specializing in reference checking for specialized fields. 
         [0044]    After the accuracy of the prospective attorney&#39;s data is ascertained or verified, the system  10  via its administrative module  28  in server  18  may receive verification data and proceeds to create a professional attorney account, along with the corresponding entity in the corresponding table in database software  36  with the requisite access privileges in the system. Attributes such as address, bar admission, residency, jurisdiction and the like are also entered into and stored in corresponding columns in the appropriate related fields and associated with the newly created attorney entity. 
         [0045]    The prospective attorney, having satisfied all criteria for membership, thus becomes a member attorney, and provided with an account created for him or her, and is notified of his or her user name and password to enter the system  10  via the account created. As the database software  36  is accessible through the servers  12 ,  18 ,  34  and network  22 , by way of a web-browser in a device (e.g., device  16   a ) in the depicted embodiment, the attorney, just like any other system user, may access the portal by logging in after providing the supplied user name and password. 
         [0046]    The sequence of events undertaken to create an account for a professional member such as an attorney is summarized by a flowchart  300  as depicted in  FIG. 3 . As shown, initially the system receives data associated with the application of a prospective attorney for membership (step  302 ). The data may include personal data, as well as data related to the professional credentials of the applicant. 
         [0047]    The system  10  then receives verification data for the supplied data (step  304 ) either asserting or denying the accuracy of the data supplied in step  302 . This step  304  can be an automated process where an external database can be accessed by the system to verify the data. Such external databases can be accessible via web-services for example, and may allow the system  10  or administrator module to verify if a prospective member is a member of particular bar association or a patent agent or a member in good standing of a particular professional society. In other embodiments, this step may be performed manually by traditional means instead of being handled automatically by system  10 , and the verification results may be provided to the administration module  28  in a predetermined format. 
         [0048]    As shown in flowchart  300 , the module  28  then checks if any piece of data required to evaluate the prospect is missing (step  306 ). If any of the data is missing then the server  18 , in this embodiment, sends a request for the missing data to the prospect such as by displaying a webpage, sending an email, sending a text message, sending a chat message, or updating a status in a web based application accessible through system  10 . 
         [0049]    If there are no missing pieces of data (step  306 ) then the server  18  checks if the supplied data is verified (step  310 ). If the verification step fails the admission request is rejected (step  316 ). However if the verification step is passed, the verified data is now compared to the membership admission criteria (step  312 ). If the admission criteria are satisfied (step  312 ), the server  18  creates accepts the membership request of the prospective professional (step  314 ) and creates a user name and password and provides it to the prospective member (step  316 ). If however, the criteria are not met, the server  18  rejects the application (step  318 ). The process is then terminated. 
         [0050]    One exemplary criterion for admitting a legal professional is membership in at least one state bar association. Another criterion for prospective attorneys claiming to be patent attorneys may be registration as a patent agent before the United States Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO) in addition to admission to at least one state bar association. Many alternatives are possible depending on how the prospective member wishes to be profiled, and can be flexibly setup in the business rules server  18 . 
         [0051]    In some embodiments, after a legal professional (e.g., attorney) is provided an account in the system  10 , an electronic profile card or a personalized webpage is automatically created for the legal professional. For example, after an attorney is admitted into the system, an information card, or a personal profile card or a profile webpage is automatically created for the attorney indicating for example, year of graduation from law school, date of bar admission, and other qualification data supplied during registration. The profile card or webpage may also include hourly rates, practice areas of law, representative cases won and the like. 
         [0052]    The information card for an attorney may be used a response template to inquiries from clients, and may include, in one embodiment: the amount charged for first consultation (or an indication that it is free), law school attended, experience (e.g., in years), availability (e.g., weekend hours, 24 hour service, etc.), and other commentary or remarks by the attorney to highlight some particulars. 
         [0053]    Similarly, a court reporter or paralegal may also have automatic profile pages created that include experience, qualification and related information. 
         [0054]    Prospective clients must also have accounts created in the system in order to utilize it to shop for services. Unlike legal professionals however, clients need not provide data related to professional credentials. In some embodiments, credit card information or other payment identifiers such as PayPal accounts or bank deposit accounts may be required for customers to become registered users. 
         [0055]    Applying for a client user account may be accomplished in using a simple registration web-page on a portal running on server  12  and providing contact information and other personal data. 
         [0056]    An exemplary webpage is depicted in  FIG. 4A . A webpage  50  may have several input fields including first name field  52 , last name field  54 , mailing address field  56 , email address field  57 , telephone number  58 , and the like. Additional data fields  60  may also be used to collect data such as such as nature of the service sought, residency, citizenship, marital status and the like may also be collected. In alternate embodiments, webpage  50  may also be used by prospective attorneys or other professionals. The additional fields  60  may be used to provide professional credentials and/or experience related information. 
         [0057]    Upon the use clicking the submission button on webpage  50 , the system collects and checks data in the data fields. Administration module  28  then creates an account for the user and provides the user with a username and password for future use, provided all relevant information is provided and checked to be satisfactory. This involves creating a new user entry with a unique user identifier in the appropriate table within database software  36 . The newly created username and passwords may be emailed to the supplied email address, or sent via text to a supplied mobile phone number. Alternately, the email address may be designated as the username and only the password may be sent to the new user. 
         [0058]    The email sent to the new user may be an HTML email having a link to a webpage embedded therein. The username and password can be viewed in a browser that opens the embedded link in the HTML email. Many variations are possible. 
         [0059]    Once a client user account has been created then the client may login to the portal of system  10  and shop for services. In one embodiment, after logging into the system  10 , the client may be presented with a web-page  80  as depicted in  FIG. 4B . The client&#39;s information already collected during registration such as name, address, telephone and email can be automatically pre-populated to help save time and ensure accuracy. However, the client may now use the additional user interface controls  82  to select particular legal fields, particular jurisdictions and/or a range of hourly rates to obtain a list of member attorneys that fit the criteria. 
         [0060]    Alternately, if no filtering is desired, the controls  82  may be left in their unselected states so that the information collected can be made available to all registered professionals. For legal advice, the client user may simply state the legal problem for which a legal service solution is sought in text field  84  along with, optionally, a corresponding budget, and thereafter submit the potential case into a shared area that is accessible to all lawyers in the system. Additionally, the client may also attach or upload documents relevant to the case using the user interface controls  86  as shown in  FIG. 4B . Of course, an individual attorney may be able to opt out of receiving general solicitation, or may customize preference settings in his or her account that determine which types of client requests are made available to him or her. 
         [0061]    In alternate embodiments, an attorney can help a particular client register for a user account in system  10 , and also help the client describe the nature of the legal advice needed. Accordingly, the attorney may interview the client, and actually enter the required input data into the system using for example, web-page  80 , on the client&#39;s behalf. For example, one of the devices  16   a  to  16   d  in  FIG. 1A  may be a portable computing device that an attorney may travel with. The portable computing device may be a tablet computer such as an iPAD™, Galaxy Tab™, Blackberry PlayBook™ or the like. The attorney can arrange an interview with the client either by telephone, or face to face at an agreed upon location. The attorney can then ask all of the requisite information from the client and enter the information into system  10  using his tablet computer. 
         [0062]    As noted above, the collected information typically includes basic biographic data, a summary of the legal case to be created and relevant documentation. The documentation may be provided by the client in hardcopy form, and the attorney may scan the hardcopy document to create softcopies that can be uploaded into the system  10 . Scanners that can create softcopies of hardcopy documents are well known in the art and are ubiquitous in office supply stores. 
         [0063]    The attorney then proceeds to create a user account for the client, enters the collected data and softcopies of documents, and distributes the potential case to the target attorneys within the system  10  on the client&#39;s behalf. 
         [0064]    Such face-to-face meetings or telephone interviews with clients are often necessary when the clients are not well versed with the user of computer systems, or otherwise lack the means or the knowhow to utilize the system  10  by themselves. 
         [0065]    In the depicted embodiment above, two or more lawyers or attorneys may offer service packages to the client using system  10 .  FIG. 5  depicts one exemplary embodiment of a flowchart  500  that summarizes the steps taken by a legal professional to offer his services utilizing the system  10 , and upon the client&#39;s acceptance of his offer, provide a legal service. 
         [0066]    As depicted in flowchart  500 , initially the professional (e.g., attorney) receives a request (step  502 ) for professional service from a client registered in system  10 . If the attorney is qualified (step  504 ) to take on the case, then the professional&#39;s calendar is checked to see if it is free (step  506 ). If sending an information card is required (step  508 ) to undertake the case, an information card is submitted (step  510 ). If the attorney is selected to take the case (step  512 ) then the attorney obtains case related data (step  514 ) already submitted by the client. If sending an information card is not required (step  508 ) to undertake the case, then the attorney proceeds to step  514 . That is, if the attorney has already been selected by the client and is the only legal professional receiving the request for the service, then there is no need to submit an information card and wait to be selected. 
         [0067]    In addition, additional client data that has not been forwarded is retrieved by the attorney (step  516 ). The attorney then proceeds to retrieve applicable forms such as standard legal forms (step  518 ) as needed which are prefilled automatically by the system (step  520 ). If additional data is required (step  522 ) and is not readily available in the system  10  then the attorney requests (step  524 ) and obtains (step  526 ) missing data from the client. 
         [0068]    In this particular embodiment the attorney requests (step  524 ) and obtains (step  526 ) the documents electronically, entirely within the system  10 . In other embodiments, other means of communication and means of obtaining the documents may of course be used. 
         [0069]    The attorney then completes the forms (step  528 ) and submits the required forms, briefs and supporting documents (step  530 ) on the client&#39;s behalf. 
         [0070]      FIG. 6  depicts a flow chart  600  that summarizes the actions of the client that would correspond to the steps depicted in flowchart  500  describing the actions of the attorney. 
         [0071]    As shown in  FIG. 6 , initially the client accesses the portal by logging in (step  602 ) and provides a description of the case (e.g., a legal case) that the client would like to be handled by a professional (e.g., attorney) in the system (step  604 ). The client then receives an offer or multiple offers for service (step  606 ) either from a selected professional, from multiple professionals where the system allows multiple professionals to offer services. 
         [0072]    The client then accepts an offer (step  608 ) from a selected attorney. Of course if additional information and documents are needed (step  610 ) they may be requested by the selected attorney and will be provided (step  612 ) by the client as needed. The client will then effect payment (step  614 ) for the service rendered by the legal professional. In one specific embodiment, the payment can be provided using billing module  32  of the system  10  of  FIG. 1 . 
         [0073]      FIG. 7  depicts a flowchart  700  that summarizes the actions of a first professional (e.g., attorney) associated with a case for a client that transfers the case to a new second professional (e.g., attorney). This type of transfer of cases may occur in many scenarios such as complicated legal cases where the current or first attorney undertakes some early aspects or matters in the case but lacks the required specialization to peruse the case further, or if the first professional suddenly becomes unable to continue with the case, or by mutual agreement between the client and the first professional to have the case handled by a new professional. 
         [0074]    As depicted in flowchart  700 , initially the first professional logs into the portal of system  10  (step  701 ) and receives acceptance of his or her offer to handle the request from the client and creates a case (step  702 ) within system  10 . The first professional, in this embodiment, then sends a message to the client to get the client&#39;s consent to transfer the case (step  704 ), and subsequently receives the consent (step  706 ). The first professional then sends a message to a new second professional to take over the case (step  708 ) and receives an indication of acceptance from the second professional (step  710 ). The first professional then makes the documents and data of the case accessible to the new professional (step  712 ). The first professional may then formally transfer the case by associating the new professional with the case (step  714 ) using server  18  of system  10 . This completes the transfer of the case from the first professional to the second professional. At this point both professionals have access to data related to the case. In alternate embodiments, the case may have only one sole representative at a time, and upon transferring the case to the second professional, the first professional may no longer have access to the data associated with the case. Many variations of access privileges are possible. In other alternative embodiments, flowchart  700  may be executed by a client, by skipping steps  702 ,  704  and  706  which are unnecessary when a client is using the system. This allows the client to take charge of his or her representation and transfer the case from one professional to another. 
         [0075]    As flowchart  700  is executed the server subsystem of system  10  made of servers  18 ,  12 ,  34  accommodates the process by maintaining an account for each of the client, the first professional or attorney and the second professional. The server subsystem receives user input from the device by a user logged into the first professional&#39;s account or the client&#39;s account and in response to the user input: store data related to the case in a memory of the server subsystem such that the data accessible to the first professional&#39;s account and the client&#39;s account but not the second professional&#39;s account; and send a request message to the second professional&#39;s account requesting the second professional to work on the case; receive an acceptance message from the second professional indicating acceptance; and upon receipt of the acceptance message, make the data accessible to the second professional&#39;s account thereby allowing the second professional to work on the case. 
         [0076]    In a related but different embodiment, the system  10  can be used for multi-jurisdictional collaboration of attorneys to help a client. Consider a scenario in which a family from Kenya travels to New Zealand for a vacation using a tourism package purchased from a company specializing in tourism. Upon arrival in New Zealand the family finds that the promises of the company were not kept. For example, a five-star hotel was promised but only a three-star hotel was accommodation was provided. In addition, services that were included in the package were not honored and the family had to pay extra, out of pocket. 
         [0077]    The family may initiate a legal case against the company in one of at least two ways. In one embodiment, the family may initiate the case by logging into the portal of system  10  and while still in New Zealand soliciting for the services of a lawyer in New Zealand. In that case, the flowchart  600  is largely applicable. The family thus accesses the portal for system  10  by logging in (step  602 ) in New Zealand and provides a description of the case that the family would like to be handled by a New Zealand attorney in the system (step  604 ). The family then receives an offer for services or multiple offers for service from multiple candidate attorneys (step  604 ). The family then accepts an offer (step  608 ) from a selected attorney in New Zealand and if additional information and documents are needed (step  610 ), they are requested by the New Zealand attorney and will be provided (step  612 ) by the family as needed. Payments may then be effected (step  614 ). 
         [0078]    In another embodiment, the family may wish to initiate the case against the company from Kenya upon their return. Further, the family has the option of contacting a local Kenyan attorney that is a member of the system  10  to help them select and communicate with a competent attorney in New Zealand. The scenario in this embodiment is depicted in  FIG. 8 ,  FIG. 9  and  FIG. 10  and described below. 
         [0079]    Thus, as shown in flowchart  800  of  FIG. 8 , upon return to the first country (Kenya) the client—in this case a member of the family—logs into the portal of system  10  (step  802 ); provides a description of the case (step  804 ); sends a request for professional legal service (step  804 ) and finally receives and accepts an offer from a qualified professional attorney in Kenya (step  806 ). 
         [0080]    The actions of the attorney the first jurisdiction (in Kenya) are depicted in flowchart  900  of  FIG. 9 . As shown, upon receiving acceptance of the offer (step  902 ) the attorney in Kenya retrieves the client&#39;s data and documentations for the case, already provided by the family (step  904 ). Since the data and documentation may be provided in a language (e.g., Swahili which is widely used in Kenya), instead of the language used in the jurisdiction where the legal case would be brought into a court of law (e.g., English—for New Zealand) the first attorney may engage the services of a translator to translate documents from Swahili to English. 
         [0081]    Recall that a translator is a type of vendor defined in the data model of system  10  depicted in  FIG. 2 . Accordingly, if the service of a vendor (e.g., a translator) is needed (step  906 ) then the vendor&#39;s service is engaged (step  910 ) by sending documents to be translated along with a vendor service request to the vendor, and the obtaining the vendor&#39;s output or work product, in the form of translated forms and documents, are obtained (step  907 ) and subsequently submitted to a second attorney (i.e., the attorney in New Zealand) on behalf of the first client by the first attorney (step  908 ). If additional documents are required (Step  912 ) then they are similarly provided to the second attorney in New Zealand with translations done as required. 
         [0082]    The actions undertaken by the second attorney in New Zealand for the exemplary embodiment described above are detailed below.  FIG. 10  depicts a flowchart  1000  summarizing the actions of the second attorney in New Zealand. Accordingly, the second attorney in New Zealand initially receives the client&#39;s case (step  1002 ). The attorney may then request information (step  1004 ) pertinent to the case for the first country or jurisdiction. If additional documentation is required (step (step  1006 ) then the second attorney requests and receives the documents (step  1014 ). If the documents have been translated to the local working language (e.g. English for New Zealand) then the attorney submits the documents in the second country to the relevant institution (step  1010 ) such as a court of law. However, if the documents have not been translated and translation is required, then the second attorney may engage the services of local vendor (in this example, a translator), using system  10  (step  1016 ). After the documents or briefs are filed with the appropriate institution or relevant court of law, the second attorney may communicate the status and/or provide billing related information to the first attorney in the first country or jurisdiction (step  1012 ) which concludes the flowchart  1000 . 
         [0083]      FIG. 11A  and  FIG. 11B  depict flowcharts depicting the actions undertaken by a first and second attorneys cooperating on a single case, by working on separate matters related to the case. For simplicity of illustration, consider a case having just two legal matters at issue. The case is primarily handled by the first attorney. The first attorney handles the first matter but requires assistance from a second attorney on a second matter. This may arise in the example discussed below where different jurisdictions are involved and each attorney is licensed to practice in his respective jurisdiction only. It may also involve specialized advice sought regarding for example, a secondary immigration related matter, on a case that primarily involves child adoption from a foreign country. Many cases involve many matters requiring different types of legal expertise, and such cases often require the cooperation of many lawyers to be handled to a successful completion. 
         [0084]      FIG. 11A  depicts a flowchart  1100  summarizing the actions of the first professional or primary attorney in a case involving a primary or first matter, and a secondary matter. Accordingly, the first attorney initially accepts the client&#39;s offer and creates a case (step  1102 ) in the server computers of system  10 . The first attorney may then request permission from the client to involve another second professional by sending a message (step  1104 ). Upon receiving the client&#39;s consent (step  1106 ) the attorney sends a message to a second professional or attorney (step  1108 ) asking for his or her service, to work on the second matter in the case. Upon receiving the acceptance message from the second attorney (step  1110 ) the first attorney proceeds to handle the first matter by, for example, filling out the necessary forms and submitting the forms and related documents (step  1112 ) to the respective court, agency or office. Upon receiving the acceptance message from the second attorney, the first attorney modifies the system to allow the second attorney access to data and documents of the case that may be needed to handle the second matter related to the case. This may be accomplished by adding the second attorney as a secondary attorney to the case. Alternately, if only one attorney is to be associated as a sole representative with a case according to the data model of system  10 , or due to the nature of the case, then the case is simply be transferred to the second attorney as described earlier. 
         [0085]    At this point the second attorney provides legal service on the second matter in accordance with flowchart  1116  of  FIG. 11B . After being granted access in step  1114 , the second attorney accesses documents related to the case (step  1118 ), and may further upload forms and documents related to the second matter (step  1120 ) and modifies system  10  to indicate completion of the legal service related to the second matter (step  1122 ). In some embodiments, step  1122  may involve transferring the case back to the primary attorney as discussed earlier. In other embodiments, it may simply be a status change on a predetermined indicator field accessible to the first attorney&#39;s account or the client&#39;s account. Many ways of passing such indications of completion of work will be known to persons of skill in the art. Alternately, emails, text messages, chat messages, tweets and the like can also be used to send messages. 
         [0086]    Referring again to  FIG. 11A , at step  1124 , the first attorney access forms, data and documents uploaded by the second attorney as part of the legal service provided to handle the second matter related to the case. The first or primary attorney may then further handle to case by submitting additional forms or documents and bring the case to completion (step  1126 ). 
         [0087]    In alternate embodiments, the system  10  may prevent conflicts of interest by preventing registered attorneys from offering to represent a client if they are already representing the opposing party in a case, provided that the case is created and handled by the system  10 . 
         [0088]    Although many of the specific exemplary embodiments have been described herein with reference to a legal service and attorneys, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the invention applies to any professional service provided by professionals to a client. Accordingly other professional services other than the legal profession such as accounting services, patent agency services, trademark agency services, and the like may be accommodated by the present invention. 
         [0089]    Although embodiments have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those of skill in the art will appreciate that variations and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.