Legal transcription requires accurate and high-quality transcripts for evidence, official documentation, and court filings. Saving time and money is one of the many benefits of legal transcription. The best way to get your transcripts is using a high-quality legal transcription company. Using our services allows your employees to focus on other tasks and enjoy the benefits legal transcription.
Suppose you are a part of the legal industry. In that case, you know how important it is to have high-quality documents that are not only accurate but convincing. With today’s technology, having typed text in an organized legal format can make arguments much stronger for complicated cases.
This article will explore the benefits of legal transcription and how it can help your business or law practice.
Why legal transcriptions are important
Whether they occur inside or outside a courtroom, the majority of legal proceedings are recorded with audio and video technology. In some cases, a court reporter or stenographer records what the parties say and do live and in person.
Regardless of the method used to capture legal conversations, most require transcribing into the correct file formats so others can also read the transcripts.
Legal transcripts play a vital role in the flow of information and the legal process. Attorneys and legal teams rely on legal transcriptions to plan cases, and construct winning legal strategies. They are also used review past cases and witness testimony from other trials.
Appellant courts and judges also rely heavily on certified legal transcripts when deciding whether to confirm or overturn a lower court’s ruling.
Outside the courtroom, legal transcriptions are often required for:
- Interviews
- Depositions
- Custody Hearings
- Conference Calls
- Client Meetings
- Witness Statements
Law students also utilize transcripts of prior cases to understand legal strategy. Transcriptions not accurately transcribed cannot accurately portray how an attorney or witness responds unless done correctly.
When referencing legal transcripts in the legal world, we often hear attorneys and clients request “certified” transcriptions. Today, most judges require certified legal transcriptions.
A certified legal transcript ensures the transcriptionists and the company stand behind the transcribed document and are willing to testify under oath if necessary to its accuracy and authenticity.
Some transcription companies that advertise their services to the legal community are unable to certify their legal transcriptions. The reason they cannot certify their legal transcripts is that they often use transcribers who reside outside the United States, and for obvious reasons can’t certify their transcripts.
Besides having detailed knowledge of the U.S. legal system, it’s virtually impossible for a transcriptionist living in another country to testify in a U.S. courtroom. That’s why it’s vital to retain a U.S.-based transcription company capable and willing to certify any legal transcription they produce for you.
Besides certification, let’s examine a few other benefits of legal transcription.
Accurate legal transcripts save money & time
Retaining a legal transcription company that can produce certified legal transcripts quickly and accurately will save both time and money.
Attorneys, legal professionals, and self-represented individuals require professional transcription services to navigate their case through the legal process. Having access to accurate transcriptions streamlines an attorney’s workflow, which in turn saves valuable time.
Everyone likes to save money. As consumers, we often search for the lowest price for products and services we need. However, using an inferior legal transcription company that charges a low rate may end up costing you even more time and money.
For example, suppose a transcribed court hearing or video deposition recording contains multiple errors. In that case, someone must commit the time and resources to correct the mistakes. That’s why selecting a legal transcription service with a high accuracy rate or a company willing to guarantee your satisfaction is the best solution.
When choosing a legal transcription company, we recommend asking if they provide a money-back guarantee.
Legal transcriptions will improve case organization
Having a good legal transcription service is necessary to accurately document the audio files produced for a particular case. These services work as a bridge between attorneys and their clients.
In the legal world, time is money. Virtually every lawyer bills their clients in fifteen-minute increments. The more time an attorney or their staff commit to correcting transcription errors, the more they will have to charge their clients. More importantly, attorneys prefer to use their valuable (and expensive) time to develop case strategy than read inaccurate transcripts.
An accurate and well-formatted legal transcription is a vital tool. Judges, clients, and others reviewing a deposition, a hearing, or trial transcripts can quickly understand important questions and their responses.
Verbatim legal transcriptions not only notate every spoken word they also capture pauses and other inaudible sounds like “ahs”, “ums”, or stutters. That may play a pivotal role in how the reply is perceived for a case.
For a transcript to be used or submitted as evidence in a legal case, certification is required.
More benefits of legal transcription services
Besides keeping attorneys organized and allowing judges to review an accurate document, legal transcriptions benefit others.
Clients may want to share a legal transcription with friends, family members, or other interested parties. Watching our favorite shows via a video format is preferable. However, when it comes to reviewing a legal matter, reading the text yourself is better.
Transcribing legal proceedings where the parties are sputtering or with thick accents can present additional challenges.
Transcribed legal recordings can also include timestamps, which are essential for speaker identification, as well as when and how long someone spoke.
Another benefit of reading a legal transcription includes the ability to highlight important parts of the testimony. Being able to pinpoint when and how evidence is presented or referenced allows attorneys to reexamine their case strategy.
Well transcribed legal proceedings can bring clarity and direction to a case. This is especially important when crafting a strategy to reexamine witnesses.
How to order certified legal transcripts
Ordering a certified legal transcript isn’t hard. The trick is understanding the process and knowing who to contact. Here’s a checklist when ordering legal transcripts:
- Contact the appropriate court clerk’s office that handles your case
- Ask about the recording process. Was it recorded via video, audio, or both?
- Find out the file type and how you can obtain the audio recording
- Contact legal transcription companies and ask to speak with management
- Explain your needs, inquire about pricing and turnaround times
- Complete your order
You may find it odd that we mention the possibility of speaking to a real, live person about any product or service. A growing number of companies only offer online chat rooms when people have questions. For those lucky enough to speak to a live customer service representative, the chances of getting your questions answered or even understanding them are remote.
We also realize that the most crucial legal transcription in the world is yours. That’s why a quality legal transcription company will take the time to help you understand your order.
Why your legal transcriptionist matters
Chances are, you’ll never know or meet the specific transcriptionist who transcribed your legal documents. However, any legitimate U.S. legal transcriptionist will be experienced, knowledgeable about U.S. legal proceedings, and qualified to certify their legal transcriptions.
That’s why Ditto Transcripts requires all transcriptionists to undergo a comprehensive criminal background check, as well as extensive testing before they can work for us. Plus, we are CJIS and HIPAA compliant, which means we must comply with additional security procedures that protect client and patient privacy.
Most audio recordings of legal proceedings and courtroom proceedings contain confidential information. Until a case is decided or completes the appeal process, all parties privy to important case details must keep such information confidential.
When you combine experience and legal knowledge with a company that values its professional reputation, you can rest comfortably knowing your legal transcript is in good hands.
Why choose Ditto Transcripts
If you are looking to improve your law firm’s efficiency by outsourcing your legal transcription services, the process of finding the right company takes time. You want to make sure you choose a transcription company with an experienced legal transcription staff, which transcribes everything on time and with 99% accuracy.
Offering high-quality, cost-effective transcription services to the legal community is our mission. Ditto Transcripts’s transcriptionists provide services for court reporters, court houses, lawyers, legal administrators, and self-prepared litigants.
We can transcribe legal briefs, court proceedings, wiretaps, police reports, interrogations, jury instructions, and in the exact document format you need. Covering all your legal transcription needs we can help alleviate all the back log your paralegals have on their plates.
To discover if Ditto Transcripts is right for you, give us a call at (720) 287-3710. Ask for a member of our management team, and we’ll be happy to answer your questions and walk you through the process of obtaining a certified legal transcript and the benefits of using a legal transcription company.
