Lawyers often face unrelenting time constraints. Their time is better spent doing legal research, meeting clients, and winning cases, not transcribing recordings and dictations. That’s why Ditto’s legal transcription services are in demand, as it removes the documentation burden by producing precise, high-quality transcripts and allowing legal professionals to focus on important matters.
However, there are nuances in choosing the right transcription partner, and that’s what we’re here to discuss.
In this article, you’ll learn how:
- Legal transcription works, including a detailed breakdown of the entire process
- Legal transcription services can help streamline documentation workflow and prepare different legal procedures.
- Professional legal transcription measures up against AI and automated transcription. Aside from the transcription process, accuracy, security, expertise, and affordability are important considerations. Ditto delivers on all fronts with no compromises.
What is Legal Transcription?
Legal transcription means converting audio and video content such as depositions, hearings, interviews, and any event in a courtroom into accurate text documents for future use.
One of its most common applications can be seen in deposition transcription services, where witness testimonies and pre-trial statements are recorded and transcribed to assist in case preparation and legal proceedings.
The Legal Transcription Process: A Step-by-Step Overview
In order to produce 99%-accurate legal transcripts, it’s essential that a standardized procedure is followed. Our professional legal transcriptionists follow these steps to ensure success:
- Capture High-Quality Audio: A legal transcript begins with a crystal-clear audio recording. A poor-quality record of the event is generally more difficult and longer to transcribe.
- Establish a Standard Format: The next step is to outline the transcript after receiving the recording. This includes breaking the transcript into clear sections and choosing appropriate fonts and formats that match a professional look.
- Identify Speakers: Courtrooms are filled with different legal professionals. Pinpointing who is talking and what their title is is a crucial responsibility in making a legal transcript.
- Transcribe Verbatim. A word-for-word account of events is essential, including every “ums”, “uhs”, and other stumbles. It also accounts for NOT missing a word or comma that might alter a speaker’s intent. Ditto’s verbatim transcription services accurately capture what’s said without any omission. Transcribing “verbatim” is crucial in preserving the true essence and tone of a transcript.
- Describe Relevant Nonverbal Cues: A simple “nod,” “chuckle,” or a “raised eyebrow” reveals something that cannot be said. It can reveal something that could change the outcome of a case.
- Labels and Reference Exhibits: Legal professionals often refer to exhibits and evidence. The transcriber’s task is to label and catch these events so that the transcript becomes an actual record of what happened in the courtroom.
- Regular Timecodes: We use timestamps or timecodes as a navigation tool and include it every few minutes or every speaker change to help readers follow what is happening.
- Proofread: Proofreading is the final process before the output is returned. It is a process where the document is reviewed for the last time to ensure consistency of details.
Legal Transcription Services Can Help Lawyers With Important Procedures
Observing proper procedure is paramount in law, and lawyers, law firms, and other legal professionals recognize this importance by following applicable procedural rules to the letter. However, nothing in the law states that lawyers can’t make it easy to follow the rules, so they can use modern technology to make their lives easier and less paperwork-centric.
Things like automated billing solutions, virtual assistance, and other productivity software are making the rounds in the legal field. Two important examples are dication and recording, which involve recording audio and video files for future reference or use. Depositions and trials can be recorded, important facts about cases can be dictated, and so on, and these audio or video files will take time to peruse.
Fortunately, these files can be transformed into a more convenient form: transcripts.
Unlike video or audio files, transcripts are easily accessible and stored, can be saved in different file formats, and are digitally searchable. Speaker labels and timestamps can improve legal audio or video. Also, handwritten notes and other legal documents can be transcribed into a more professional form, perfect for use in court proceedings and other legal purposes.
Use Cases: Real-World Scenarios
Ditto handles transcription for a broad range of legal recordings such as:
| Legal Procedure | Benefits of Transcription Services for Lawyers |
| Deposition Transcriptions | Provides an accurate record of statements for trial preparation and use. |
| Trial Proceedings | Ensures a detailed record for appeals, testimony review, and case analysis. |
| Client Interviews | Keeps a detailed record of all discussions for future reference and strategy. |
| Witness Statements | Assists in cross-referencing testimonies and trial preparation. |
| Legal Correspondence | Helps maintain organized records and ease information retrieval. |
| Arbitration and Mediation | Offers a clear, unbiased record of proceedings for review and agreements. |
| Administrative Hearings | Crucial for appeals or future reference in administrative law cases. |
| Legal Research | Provides an accessible textual resource for analysis and reference. |
| Strategy Meetings | Records decision-making processes, legal theories, and tactics. |
| Police and Investigative Reports | Aids in case preparation and forensic analysis, especially in criminal defense cases. |
Aside from transcriptions, Ditto offers a legal typing service that caters to case notes, letters, and legal papers, transforming them into professionally formatted documents that align with legal standards.
Transcription Options: Choosing the Right Method:
Transcription may be necessary; however, lawyers are too busy to do the transcription themselves. So, what are the options for getting accurate legal transcription? Choosing the right one can significantly impact attorneys and legal professionals. So, let’s discuss the options.
Option 1: Automated AI Legal Transcription For Lawyers (Not Recommended for Legal Purposes)
Artificial intelligence is a useful piece of technology that is starting to conquer everything—if the state of technology and industry is any indication. Pretty much everyone uses AI, from businesses conducting multimillion-dollar research to a high-school kid writing a 2000-word essay the night before it’s due. Surely, legal transcription has a place between these two, right?
Not exactly. Lawyers and other legal professionals require highly accurate legal transcription, especially for official transcription like those submitted for court hearings. While several transcription software packages are available for law practitioners, automated transcription isn’t one of them.
Despite its novelty, AI transcription is unfit for final transcription results because its results are inaccurate, as even the best speech-to-text software can only reach 86% accuracy under the very best circumstances.
Imagine having it work on audio or video recordings with complex legal terminology, four or more speakers like in focus groups, or interviews with poor audio quality. The accuracy rate drop-off in these situations is astronomical.
To be fair, AI is perfectly fine for note-taking and reminders, but again, high-quality legal transcription is required for official procedures. Otherwise, they expose their legal practices to erroneous legal decisions, appeal complications, reduced credibility, additional costs, and ethical and professional issues.
Option 2: In-House Transcription
Human transcription is more accurate than AI by 14% or more. That may not look much, but by legal standards, it’s the difference between computing with an abacus and using a modern calculator. Legal transcripts require precision, and what better way to ensure that than by getting a legal transcriptionist on your team, right?
Again, not exactly. While hiring in-house to take care of transcription needs might make sense for the top law firms, this can be a bank-breaking decision for most practices. Transcriptionists make more than $40,000 a year, according to recent data. Paralegals can do transcription, but they make more yearly than transcriptionists do.
If you factor in benefits, equipment, office space, training, and other employment expenses, you could be looking at a significant amount by the end of every year. Quality legal transcription is important, but it shouldn’t come at a hefty price.
Option 3: Outsourced Human Experts (Ditto Transcription)
One of the best ways to save money as you’re getting the help of qualified, professional experts is by hiring transcription agencies. Quality and accuracy are assured since the service provider focuses solely on transcription. As long as you outsource to human transcribers, it should be fine, right?
Well again…
Not exactly. Dozens of legal transcription companies online offer their services to legal teams. However, not all legal transcription companies are created equal. They might offer dirt-cheap legal transcription rates, but, as the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”
Why Automated Transcription Is Not Enough
Artificial intelligence is excellent in many areas but not as great as Ditto Transcripts when it comes to Transcription. While human transcription delivers a 99% accuracy rate, studies show that AI transcription averages just 61.92%. Some may argue that ~62% is “good enough,” but that is not the case when what is at stake is thousands to millions of dollars or even life. Aside from accuracy, automated transcription services are inefficient and unbound from legal responsibilities.
Choosing The Right Legal Transcription Service For Lawy
The right legal transcription service can act as your partner, an extension of your office, seamlessly integrating with your legal team as though they’ve been part of it the whole time. The wrong transcription company will give lawyers and other professionals headaches, unnecessary overtime hours, broken workflows, and probably ulcers.
That’s why it’s important to take your time to find the right provider that employs the most effective transcription process. Furthermore, they must be able to meet the following criteria:
Experience And Expertise
Transcribers need experience in the legal field to be effective and efficient. The good thing about Ditto is we only hire candidates of the highest quality. That’s why we can assure 99% accuracy for our services. Our transcribers are familiar with legalese, different legal procedures, and formatting guidelines. It’d be like having a trusted, experienced legal assistant who only handles transcription.
Ditto also specializes in legal subspecialties like trial transcription services, ensuring that all information is covered from the opening to the final verdict. It provides detailed transcripts that are essential in legal activities and courtroom records.
Speed And Affordability
Let’s face it: anybody can make a 100% accurate transcript if they don’t have a deadline. Similarly, having fifteen transcribers working on one regular-length audio file will lead to lightning-fast turnaround times—but they’re definitely not going to be cheap.
Speed, accuracy, and affordability require a delicate balancing act, and that’s where Ditto shines. Our transparent legal transcription prices offer a flexible rate that depends on your preferred turnaround time! Do you prefer it cheap? We got you. Do you need it quickly? We got you as well.
Here at Ditto, we offer a standard rate of $1.75 per audio minute for legal transcribing. We also offer rushed turnaround times of as short as 24 hours. For tighter budgets, we also have longer, more economical turnaround times of one to two weeks. This range of turnaround times ensures that everyone has options.
Security And Privacy
The confidentiality of all legal information is an important part of the legal industry. That means anyone who falls within the scope of legal proceedings, from clerks to transcription services to lawyers, must make efforts to safeguard all legal data.
Unfortunately, many legal transcription services neglect this requirement. They don’t want to spend money to update their security measures (if they even have one in the first place) or fail to secure transfer channels for audio and video files, exposing their clients to significant risks like:
| Risk | Potential Exposure |
Compromised Client Confidentiality | Breaches can reveal sensitive client information, leading to loss of privacy and potential harm to clients’ interests. |
| Legal Liability | Law firms and transcription services may face legal action for failing to protect confidential information. |
| Damage to Professional Reputation | Security leaks can tarnish the reputation of legal professionals, affecting trust and credibility in the industry. |
| Financial Losses | Breaches often result in financial damages due to legal costs, penalties, and loss of business. |
| Ethical Violations | Security failures can violate ethical standards in the legal profession, potentially leading to disciplinary actions. |
| Compromised Case Integrity | Leaks may lead to tampering or misuse of legal documents, affecting the integrity of legal cases. |
With Ditto, you don’t have to worry about any of that. We’re a CJIS-compliant service provider, meaning all our security protocols—from encryption to how we give our employees their usernames and passwords—have passed some of the most rigorous protocol requirements in the industry.
Experience Ditto’s Accurate Legal Transcription For Lawyers And Firms
Get the accurate, quality transcription that you deserve. Ditto’s expert legal transcription team is ready to receive your recordings. Give us a call, or try our free trial to get a taste of the difference.
Ditto Transcripts is a CJIS-compliant, Denver, Colorado-based legal transcription company that provides fast, accurate, and affordable transcription services for hospitals, clinics, facilities, and individual practices of all sizes. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote, and ask about our free five-day trial.