Patent ID: 8189755

Claim:
A method for call urgency screening comprising: a server receiving a presence status of a user; the server receiving call handling rules from a computing device of the user, the call handling rules being based on the presence status of the user; the server detecting a communication request for establishing a communication connection between the user and a caller for forming a communication; the server determining whether to provide the presence status of the user to the caller based on an identity of the caller; if the presence status of the user is provided to the caller, the server determining whether to effect the requested communication connection between the user and the caller based on the call handling rules; if the caller satisfies the call handling rules: the server effecting a connection of the requested communication connection between the user and the caller; if the caller does not satisfy the call handling rules: the server prompting the caller to provide subject matter information about a subject matter of the requested communication connection, the server storing the subject matter information provided by the caller; the server determining if the user wants to receive the communication based on the stored subject matter information provided by the caller, if the user wants to receive the communication, the server forwarding the communication to the user to effect the connection of the requested communication connection between the user and the caller, and if the user does not want to receive the communication, the server forgoing forwarding of the communication to the user.