Document processing system and method

1. A method for processing electronic documents, comprising:

receiving a plurality of electronic documents;

storing, in a storage medium, the electronic documents in file containers configured to preserve the integrity and authenticity of the electronic documents;

retrieving metadata from the storage medium without extracting the plurality of electronic documents from the storage medium, the metadata indicating forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents;

indexing the electronic documents based on the retrieved metadata;

automatically filtering the electronic documents based on the retrieved metadata;

presenting the metadata to a user for review;

setting an interactive filter according to user inputs received through a user interface that indicate a selection of forensic information of the electronic documents and include at least a filtering criterion;

applying, by a computer without human intervention, the interactive filter to the electronic documents to generate filtering results based on the filtering criterion;

storing the filtering results in a queue for processing, the filtered metadata identifying a selected set of the electronic documents; and

selectively extracting, without human intervention, one or more electronic documents from the storage medium based on the stored filtering results.

2. A computer-readable medium including computer instructions, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a method for processing electronic documents, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of electronic documents;

storing, in a storage medium, the electronic documents in file containers configured to preserve the integrity and authenticity of the electronic documents;

retrieving metadata from the storage medium without extracting the plurality of electronic documents from the storage medium, the metadata indicating forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents;

indexing the electronic documents based on the retrieved metadata;

automatically filtering the electronic documents based on the retrieved metadata;

presenting the metadata to a user for review;

setting an interactive filter according to user inputs received through a user interface that indicate a selection of forensic information of the electronic documents and include at least a filtering criterion;

applying, by a computer without human intervention, the interactive filter to the electronic documents to generate filtering results based on the filtering criterion;

storing the filtering results in a queue for processing, the filtered metadata identifying a selected set of the electronic documents; and

selectively extracting, without human intervention, one or more electronic documents from the storage medium based on the stored filtering results.

3. A computer system for processing electronic documents comprising:

a storage medium for storing computer instructions for processing a plurality of electronic documents; and

a processor for executing the computer instructions, the computer instructions causing the processor to:

receive a plurality of electronic documents;

store, in a storage medium, the electronic documents in file containers configured to preserve the integrity and authenticity of the electronic documents;

retrieve metadata from the storage medium without extracting the plurality of electronic documents from the storage medium, the metadata indicating forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents;

index the electronic documents based on the retrieved metadata;

automatically filter the electronic documents based on the retrieved metadata;

present the metadata to a user for review;

set an interactive filter according to user inputs received through a user interface that indicate a selection of forensic information of the electronic documents and include at least a filtering criterion;

apply, by a computer without human intervention, the interactive filter to the electronic documents to generate filtering results based on the filtering criterion;

store the filtering results in a queue for processing, the filtered metadata identifying a selected set of the electronic documents; and

selectively extract, without human intervention, one or more electronic documents from the storage medium based on the stored filtering results.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents by analyzing the metadata.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the filtering criterion includes at least one of a document name, a document type, a folder name, a custodian name, a file extension, a domain name, a date range, a time range, or a keyword.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising presenting the filtering results to a user through a user interface.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

presenting the selectively extracted electronic documents to a user for review.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the user interface comprises a remote computer user interface for presenting the forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents and the selectively extracted electronic documents to a user.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the method further comprises presenting the filtering results to the user in substantially real time through the user interface.

10. The computer system of claim 3 , wherein the selected set of the electronic documents is an image file generated based on a file system associated with the storage medium.

11. The computer system of claim 3 , wherein the electronic documents available to the user further includes presenting the metadata to the user through a web-based application.

12. The computer system of claim 3 , wherein the metadata includes at least one of a document name, a document type, a file extension, a creation date and time, a last modified date and time, an indication of whether the electronic documents have been deleted, a number of all of the electronic documents, a size of all of the electronic documents.

13. The method of claim 4 , wherein the forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents includes a list of folders storing the electronic documents and structural relationships of the folders, the structural relationships of the folders corresponding to a file system in which the electronic documents were created.

14. The method of claim 6 , further comprising presenting the filtering results in substantially real time.

15. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

receiving an additional user input for adjusting the filtering result, the additional user input inducting an additional filtering criterion different from the filtering criterion; and filtering the electronic documents according to the additional filtering criterion.

16. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

generating a graphical element representing a statistical characteristic of the selectively extracted electronic documents.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents further includes a list of electronic documents stored within each folder.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents further includes at least one of a document name, a document type, a file extension, a creation date and time, a last modified date and time, an indication of whether the electronic documents have been deleted, a number of all of the electronic documents, and a size of all of the electronic documents.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

presenting the forensic information about the plurality of electronic documents to a user through a user interface generated by a web-based application.