Legal Transcription Services for Speed and Accuracy
What is legal transcription?
Legal transcription is the transcribing of audio files sent from lawyers, business attorneys, banks, insurance companies, or any business that uses legal services, into electronic or paper documents. The audio files can be recordings of legal consultations, trial hearings, testimonies, briefs, court judgments and depositions, notes, memorandum, telephone conversations, interviews, and minutes of meetings.
There are two types of transcriptions – verbatim and screened. Verbatim transcription includes every utterance in the conversation, the “ummms”, aside comments, and repetitions. Screened transcriptions are edited to remove repetitions, superfluous words, etc.
Why should you hire legal transcription services?
Legal transcription services have a quality assurance process that ensures a high degree of accuracy in transcriptions. They have a team of professionals that work around-the-clock. The usual turnaround time for the transcriptions is 12-24 hours from submission. Some companies can do it faster for an additional charge.
Legal transcription services are cost-effective as they offer volume discounts and a combination of other service such as PDF conversions, desktop publishing, typesetting, etc. Other add-on services include notary services, creating synchronized transcripts and web version of files.
Many companies save you the cost and effort of creating digital files by accepting audio/video cassettes at no extra charge.
How does legal transcription work?
Lawyers and other legal professionals can either use digital voice recorders to create audio files or call in on an 800 number provided by the transcription company to make recordings. The file is then sent to the legal transcription company by uploading the file on a secured internet connection, sending the file as an email attachment or on a CD. The usual file formats accepted by most companies are WAV and MP3.
Once the file reaches the transcriptionists, they transcribe the audio recording and send the document drafted as per specifications to a proofreader. The proofreader matches the text to speech, noting portions of inaudible speech, and correcting errors. A senior proofreader or quality assurance agent reviews the final draft before sending it to the customer. This process guarantees a high level of accuracy.
Types of legal transcription companies
Legal transcription can be one service amongst many other transcription services – medical, political, religious, etc. – offered by a company. Alternatively, the company can be solely dedicated to legal transcriptions. Either way, the staff is trained in legal jargon. Many in the staff are paralegals, legal secretaries or retired professionals of law.
What to look for in a legal transcription company?
Here are some points to verify before working with a legal transcription company:
1. Skill of the agents: The agents should be familiar with court proceedings and legal jargon so that they can create documents according to specifications. They should have fast and accurate typing skills. Quality assurance agents should also be experienced.
2. Quality assurance process: The transcription should be proofread minutely to eliminate errors before it reaches the customer.
3. What file formats are accepted? If you use multiple formats of audio files, the transcription company should be able to process them. Many companies accept audio/video cassettes too.
4. Is there a trial period? Most reputed companies provide a free trial period for you to verify the quality of their services.
5. Guarantee of confidentiality: Most importantly, a company must guarantee confidentiality of information and enable secure transfer of data.
What do legal transcription services cost?
Request quotes from multiple transcription companies before making your selection. Transcription services can charge per line of transcription or per minute of the audio track or per page for a large volume of transcriptions. Costs may also vary with the type of transcription required – screened or verbatim.
Conduct a thorough check on a legal transcription company, and make use of the free trial period to make an informed choice.