What Is Legal Transcription?
Simply put, it’s a service that converts any audio involving:
- attorneys
- barristers
- solicitors
- other professionals who practice law into a written representation
Most commonly, these are all types of legal negotiations and court proceedings. Compared to some of the other branches, legal transcription has very strict rules and guidelines that have to be adhered to.
Even though it is often mixed up, court reporting has a couple of quite significant differences compared to transcription.
Mainly, it uses different equipment. Court reports are written with a stenotype machine, whereas the transcripts are typed out. Also, the former is created in real-time. While the event is still ongoing – transcripts rely on recordings that can be relistened to multiple times.
The answer to “What is legal transcription?” isn’t very straightforward at first, but it gets more clearer as you see some examples.
Variations of Legal Transcription Service
Manual
In the earlier days, legal transcripts were being produced exclusively by people who had some sort of training. Today, this job no longer requires any prior experience or certification. Unlike court reporting which only accepts licensed people.
However, that doesn’t mean that everyone can do it successfully. Since it requires top-notch precision and high attention to detail, it is not that easy.
The manual variation implies transcribing a dictated recording word for word after the legal event has occurred. This process is often repetitive. Especially if there’s a lot of professional terminologies that might be unknown to a regular person.
Automated
The programmed software constantly improves. That means legal transcription services that rely on manual labor are starting to go obsolete. With a computer, there’s no need to worry about all the tiny details such as punctuation, spelling, and other delicate aspects.
It eliminates the possibility of human error while ensuring maximum possible accuracy. In addition, there are significant money savings involved in automatic transcription. Because the software doesn’t have to be trained as humans do.
Alongside knowing what is legal transcription, it’s important to realize some of its major benefits.
How It’s Beneficial
Gives an Advantage
Most people have had at least one situation that involves going to a court hearing. Studies show a positive outcome on over half of the court disputes that contain some form of legal transcription.
This is why it’s important to use every resource possible in order to gain the upper hand. Transcripts help both lawyers and law firms keep track of all the necessary information, while also serving as an aid in forming a strategy.
Having a written document makes it a whole lot easier to filter out less useful information from the crucial parts.
Concrete Evidence
In the court of law, the spoken word is worth close to nothing. It’s crucial to have physical, written evidence that can help back up your statements.
With a transcript, you have the material needed to counter anything that the opposite party throws at you. This can turn the whole tide of the hearing while showing the judge that you’re serious and professional.
Plan Ahead
Working with an audio recording is incomparably harder than working with text. Trying to find certain information in an hour-long audio files are quite tedious and difficult.
As the legal proceeding moves forward, there will be an increasingly bigger amount of files that you’ll have to work with.
This is why it’s a good idea to use legal transcription services. It helps to have it all transcribed as soon as possible – if they pile up, it’ll be virtually impossible to find anything.
Full Verbatim
In order to be valid, legal transcripts have to be exclusively full verbatim. This means that if there’s another sound in the recording besides speech (such as background noise/chatter), it has to be transcribed.
Even nonverbal noises need to be included. Sometimes, this can make proper punctuating difficult. It is exactly where the company-specific guidelines come into play.
Proper Formatting
It’s a formal document for a formal occasion, which is why everything has to be properly indented, numbered, and checked for errors.
Proofreading is a large part of legal transcription. Often it is more important than the transcription itself.
It’s also a good idea to have another person who will double-check for errors, even when you’re certain that there aren’t any.
Choosing Legal Transcription Services
The most efficient and secure way of getting a solid transcript is to use a high-quality, automatic service. Audext is an advanced, high-tech legal transcription software that can accomplish hours’ worth of work in a matter of seconds.
Its algorithm uses a combination of AI and machine learning. And it is able to consistently provide over 99% accuracy as long as the audio is fairly clear without significant background noise.
Why Audext?
In a nutshell, Audext covers all necessary guidelines right out of the box. It labels each sentence with the name of the person who spoke it, whether it’s the judge or someone else. This prevents any confusion and makes the task of searching for a specific piece of data easier.
Usually, you need to provide a user-friendly environment where everyone can modify the text according to their needs. That`s why Audext includes a built-in text editor.
Since the formatting isn’t the same with every company, the user has full control over how the final result will look. Once everything is completed, the transcript is ready for export in a DOC format to maintain the formal, professional look.
Besides the hourly, monthly pricing plans, Audext offers custom arrangements for larger companies. There are no hidden fees. Everything there is determined immediately without any additional limitations.
Test out Audext today with the 30-minute free trial to see why it manages to remain one of the best automatic transcribers in the industry.