Patent ID: 8055529

Claim:
A method for assessing the performance of an attorney responsible for prosecuting a security interest enforcement action in a specified jurisdiction, the method comprising: storing in a computer readable medium data representing one or more milestones associated with the security interest enforcement action in the specified jurisdiction; projecting time durations for one or more fixed-frequency events associated with completing one or more of said milestones, said fixed-frequency events being events that will occur in a predetermined manner during completion of the one or more milestones; projecting time durations for one or more random-frequency events associated with completing one or more of said milestones, said random-frequency events being events that may or may not occur during completion of the one or more milestones; determining, using one or more computer processors in communication with the computer readable medium, a projected completion time for the one or more milestones by applying a stochastic model that accounts for the occurrence of said one or more fixed-frequency events and said one or more random-frequency events associated with said one or more milestones, wherein applying a stochastic model to said fixed-frequency and random-frequency events comprises applying the mathematical formula: T = ∑ k ⁢ ⁢ β k ⁢ Z k , ∀ k , wherein T is the projected time associated with completion of one of said one or more milestones; k is an index over said one or more fixed-frequency and random-frequency events associated with completion of the one or more milestones; β k is a duration associated with event k; for events k that are fixed-frequency events, Z k equals 1; and for events k that are random-frequency events, Z k is a measure of the frequency of occurrence of event k, such that 0≦Z k ≦1; receiving information on the attorney's actual performance in prosecuting the security interest enforcement action, wherein the information on the attorney's actual performance includes an actual completion time for the one or more milestones; and determining the timeliness of the attorney's actual performance by comparing the actual completion time to said projected completion time.