System and method for distributed document upload via electronic mail

A system for storing documents received via email, the system comprising:

• a secure document database having stored therein a plurality of documents associated with a user, each document having an associated document record comprising a document identifier and a sender identifier associated with an email sender from whom the document was received;
• a document intake system comprising
• an email processor in communication with a network and having an email client associated with the user and configured for receiving email messages from document contributors via the network,
• an email evaluation processor in communication with the email processor, the email evaluation processor being configured to review an email received from the email processor to determine if the received email meets at least one of the set consisting of predetermined sender acceptance criteria and predetermined rejection criteria,
• a document storage processor configured to
• create an email content document from content of the email, and
• create and store in the secure document database an associated document record for at least one of the set consisting of
• the email content document and
• one or more documents attached to the email.

A system for distributed upload of documents, the system comprising:

• a plurality of contributor processing systems, each associated with a document contributor;
• a user device associated with a user;
• a secure document database having stored therein a plurality of documents associated with the user, each document having been provided by one of the document contributors and each having an associated document record comprising a document identifier and a contributor identifier;
• a document intake system comprising
• an email processor in communication with the contributor processing systems via a network and having an email client associated with the user for receiving an email message from a sending document contributor,
• an email evaluation processor in communication with the secure document database, the email evaluation processor being configured to determine if the received email meets at least one of the set consisting of predetermined sender acceptance criteria and predetermined rejection criteria,
• a document storage processor configured to, upon a determination that the received email meets the sender acceptance criteria, create an email content document from content of the email, and create and store in the secure document database an associated document record for at least one of the set consisting of the email content document and one or more documents attached to the email;
• and
• a document download server in communication with the secure document database and a document requester processing system via the network, the document download processor being configured to
• receive a document search request from the document requester processing system, the search request including requester-specified search criteria;
• search the secure document database for stored documents meeting the search criteria;
• and
• transmit at least a portion of the stored documents meeting the search criteria to the document requester processing system.