Method and system for processing vehicular violations

Abstract

A method includes receiving paper comprising information regarding a vehicular violation, the information comprising a unique vehicle identifier and a violation classification, extracting from the paper the unique vehicle identifier and the violation classification via automated pattern recognition, uploading the extracted unique vehicle identifier and the violation classification to a database, determining whether the extracted unique vehicle identifier is associated with a predefined plurality of vehicles, responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is associated with a vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles, charging a violation fee for the vehicular violation to a party that was responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation, responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is not associated with the predefined plurality of vehicles, disputing responsibility for the vehicular violation.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method comprising:
 by a computer system comprising computer hardware:   receiving violation notice comprising information regarding a vehicular violation, the information comprising identification data and a violation classification;   automatically extracting from the violation notice the identification data and the violation classification;   uploading, to a database, the automatically extracted identification data and the violation classification;   determining whether the automatically extracted identification data corresponds to a predefined plurality of vehicles;   responsive to a determination that the identification data corresponds a vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles, charging a violation fee to a responsible party at a time of the vehicular violation; and   responsive to a determination that the identification data is not associated with the predefined plurality of vehicles, disputing responsibility for the vehicular violation.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the disputing responsibility for the vehicular violation comprises providing evidence of non-responsibility for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the evidence of non-responsibility comprises sale documents. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the evidence of non-responsibility comprises lease-return documents. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the predefined plurality of vehicles is a plurality of vehicles available for rent by a rental-car agency. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , comprising, responsive to a determination that the identification data is associated with the vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles:
 determining whether the vehicle was rented at the time of the vehicular violation;   responsive to a determination that the vehicle was rented at the time of the vehicular violation, identifying a renter of the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation as the party responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and   responsive to a determination that the vehicle was not rented at the time of the vehicular violation, identifying the rental-car agency as the party responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising paying the violation fee. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the identification data comprises a license plate number. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the determining comprises comparing the license plate number to a plurality of license plate numbers in a database. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the database comprises rental-car-agreement data of a rental-car agency. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , comprising:
 identifying an employee of the rental-car agency who was responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and   charging the employee the violation fee.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the vehicular violation is selected from the group consisting of a toll violation, a parking violation, and a traffic violation. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the violation classification is selected from the group consisting of a first notice, a second notice, a collection letter, and a court notice. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising sorting the vehicular violation among a plurality of vehicular violations by the violation classification. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the automatically extracting comprises optical character recognition (OCR) extraction. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the violation notice comprises paper. 
     
     
         18 . A system for vehicular violations automation, the system comprising:
 a first entity for receiving violation notice comprising information regarding a vehicular violation, the information comprising vehicle identification data and a violation classification;   a first computer associated with the first entity and configured to automatically extract from the violation notice the identification data and the violation classification;   a database associated with the first entity and configured to receive the extracted identification data and the violation classification;   a second computer associated with the first entity and configured to execute violation processing logic to determine whether the extracted identification data corresponds to a predefined plurality of vehicles;   responsive to a determination that the identification data corresponds to a vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles, the second computer charges a violation fee for the vehicular violation to a party that was responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and   responsive to a determination that the identification data does not correspond to the predefined plurality of vehicles, the second computer disputes responsibility for the vehicular violation.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the vehicular violation is selected from the group consisting of a toll violation, a parking violation, and a traffic violation. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the second computer provides evidence of non-responsibility for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation. 
     
     
         21 . An article of manufacture for providing toll service to a third-party-operated transport user, the article of manufacture comprising:
 at least one computer readable medium;   processor instructions contained on the at least one computer readable medium, the processor instructions configured to be readable from the at least one computer readable medium by at least one processor and thereby cause the at least one processor to operate as to perform:
 receiving violation notice comprising information regarding a vehicular violation, the information comprising identification data and a violation classification; 
 automatically extracting from the violation notice the identification data and the violation classification; 
 uploading, to a database, the automatically extracted identification data and the violation classification; 
 determining whether the automatically extracted identification data corresponds to a predefined plurality of vehicles; 
 responsive to a determination that the identification data corresponds a vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles, charging a violation fee to a responsible party at a time of the vehicular violation; and 
 responsive to a determination that the identification data is not associated with the predefined plurality of vehicles, disputing responsibility for the vehicular violation.