Legal Transcriptions for All Disciplines
Speed. Quality. Accuracy. Preferred Transcriptions’ expert legal transcriptionists provide you with the high-quality legal transcription services you need. From converting audio and video files into case-ready legal documents to giving accurate court transcripts and legal proceedings transcription, Preferred Transcriptions helps law offices across the United States with friendly, reliable service.
Plus, with U.S-based transcriptionists and fast turnaround times, you’ll get your completed documentation back quickly – usually within 24-48 hours (ask us about rush jobs). Download via any web browser to your computer, phone, tablet, or other handheld device for electronic signature, autoprint to a local printer or autofax.
Table of Contents
- How To Send My Audio or Video for Fast Legal Transcription
- Benefits of Legal Transcription for Your Practice
- What is Legal Transcription?
- Types of Legal Transcription
- Uses of Legal Transcription Services
- How Professionals Can Use Online Legal Transcription Services
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Experience
- Testimonials
- Finding the Right Legal Transcription Service Online
We have experience transcribing all manner of legal dictation, including:
- Depositions and summaries
- Wiretap recordings
- Recorded phone conversations
- 911 calls
- Dispatch calls
- City Council Meetings
- City planning Board Meetings
- Administrative hearings
- Internal Affairs Interviews
- IEP planning sessions
- Other administrative interviews or meetings
Our clients consist of a variety of medical offices, hospitals, legal and marketing firms and educational institutions nationwide including but not limited to: Pennsylvania (PA), New Jersey (NJ), Delaware (DE) and New York (NY).
How Do I Send My Audio or Video for Fast Legal Transcription?
At Preferred Transcriptions, we pride ourselves in fast turnaround times for transcriptions. We make the submission process fast and easy, too! Simply:
- Set up your account with Preferred by calling us at: 888-779-5888 – it takes minutes to set you up
- Use the link we send you to upload your source audio and video
- Download your completed legal documents, court transcripts, and other legal transcription within 24-48 hours
Then, you or your office simply does a quick review before printing, filing, or archiving!
Personalized Service to Meet Your Firm’s Unique Needs
We can meet the needs of any legal practice. Because you will be assigned a single transcribing team for the duration of our relationship, you will get consistent and quality transcripts every time from a team that knows how you work. We can also accommodate your reports and templates, making the paperwork process more cost-effective, streamlined, and efficient.
Benefits of Legal Transcription for Your Practice
Preferred Transcriptions’ expert legal transcriptionists can save you many costly employee hours and make compiling legal paperwork fast and efficient. With Preferred, you get:
- Fast turnaround of all legal transcription
- Highest standards of accuracy, quality, and speed
- Best-in-class customer service
- 100% US-based human transcribers
- Secure servers
Attorneys and law offices love working with Preferred Transcription because we save them time and money. Why ask a highly paid paralegal to spend valuable time transcribing meetings when we can do it faster?
What is Legal Transcription?
Legal transcription is the act of taking audio and video sources from various legal proceedings and converting them into accurate text transcripts.
“Accurate” is an important word here, especially these days. With offshoring and now the rise of AI transcription, accuracy is a real concern. For example, the accuracy rate for AI transcription is an extremely low 86%. That means:
- More review time for you and your staff
- Higher costs paying for their salaries
- More time spent looking up unknown or wildly inaccurate words
- More chance one or more errors will slip through the review process
- Less time focusing on what’s really important: your clients and their cases
All of these factors can impact your staff and office, your bottom line, and the success of your case.
Types of Legal Transcription
The term legal transcription can cover a wide range of activities. Here are some of the more popular legal transcription services we provide:
Depositions and Summaries
Depositions including witness interviews are of course crucial in many legal cases including criminal, insurance, and injury. But you need written documentation, not just the audio recording. Deposition transcription also makes it easier for you to write deposition summaries using direct quotes from the transcription.
Recorded Phone Conversations
Phone call recordings are notoriously bad for audio quality. A poor connection, background noise, and other factors can significantly reduce the quality of your recording – another way phone conversation transcription can help you capture conversations effectively and present them in court.
Administrative Hearings
Often, audio or video recordings of administrative hearings are available going back sometimes years. Sometimes a transcript is available, but other times they are not transcribed. Administrative hearing transcription converts audio and video sources into useable text for court submission.
Internal Affairs Interviews
Like all forms of law enforcement transcription, Internal Affairs transcription of interviews, hearings, meetings and more requires clarity and accuracy. The professional legal transcriptionists at Preferred Transcription take the time and care to get it right, reducing your review time and increasing your chances of successfully winning your case.
IME Transcription
Independent medical evaluations or IME transcription requires knowledge of both legal and medical terminology. If a case gets to this point, an IME report is almost certainly going to be used in court, mediation, or other legal proceeding. That means you have to put extra emphasis on accuracy. Preferred Transcriptions’ expert transcriptionists have the training and experience needed to get it right.
Other Administrative Interviews or Meetings
Any legal transcription of individual or administrative meetings, interviews, and hearings requires a good ear and great typing skills. Preferred Transcriptions’ legal transcriptionists maintain a high level of accuracy – much higher than AI or offshored transcription companies. We provide you and your team with uncompromised quality and professionalism.
Personal Dictation
Dictating notes into a digital recorder or your phone is an easy way to get your thoughts down fast. We will help you convert those notes into readable text later.
Benefits & Uses of Legal Transcription Services
Audio recordings have become intrinsic to an attorney’s workflow, considering the number of discovery depositions, summaries, and meetings each year. However, the repetitive task of listening back to audio files can be a significant time drain for busy law offices. By hiring specialized legal transcription companies, you can relieve your team from these time-consuming tasks, freeing up valuable administrative staff time and improving the overall efficiency of your law firm.
At Preferred Transcriptions, we offer legal professionals high-quality legal transcription services personalized to meet their firm’s unique needs. Based on our experience working with law firms, here are some potentially game-changing benefits of legal transcription.
Legal Transcriptions for Recordkeeping
Efficient and organized access to essential records is crucial for a busy law firm. However, sifting through audio recordings for specific information can be time-consuming. Text documents, on the other hand, provide a quicker and easier way to access the legal information you need. Text information can significantly reduce your research time by eliminating the need to listen to recordings repeatedly.
Legal transcription companies play a crucial role in ensuring that your legal documents are correctly filed, thereby preventing mishaps caused by poor recordkeeping. Given the sensitivity of legal casework, maintaining an accurate record is essential to avoid penalization for missing or invalid information on important documents.
Transcriptions as Courtroom Aids
As a legal professional, you may take on cases that require multiple depositions and hearings. The more involved the case is, the more audio files you may compile, meaning it will take longer to listen back.
The text format of a transcription can help you stay prepared by providing access to a visual layout of all pertinent case information. For example, in the case of an appeal, legal transcriptions make it easier to review past proceedings and key case details to prepare a new legal strategy. Unencumbered access to this information can help increase an attorney’s courtroom confidence.
Legal Transcription Companies Set Your Law Firm Up for Success
Hiring legal transcription companies can also help your law firm improve internal workflows. Attorneys, paralegals, and office administrators will all have access to the information they need in text format, making it much easier to sort and share among colleagues and facilitating collaborative coworking.
Remember, audio recordings are a helpful way to document many of your routine legal meetings, but they shouldn’t be the only record on file. Back up your audio recordings with transcriptions to easily access information and improve your work life in the office and the courtroom.
How Professionals Can Use Online Legal Transcription Services
Online legal transcription services already benefit many courtroom proceedings–it is common practice for an official court stenographer to transcribe an event. Beyond the courtroom, many other legal proceedings and law firm tasks can benefit from being transcribed into a written format, lightening the load for legal professionals who already work long hours and rely on highly accurate information.
Like those offered by Preferred Transcriptions, legal transcription services offer high-quality text records of important meetings, depositions, and other events.
Compiling Documentation of Legal Proceedings
Audio recordings, spoken testimony, and videotaped proceedings transcribed into written text can be stored in digital or paper formats. Some legal proceedings that law professionals can benefit from transcribing are:
- Summaries and depositions
- Interrogations
- Wiretapped conversations
- Conference calls
- Recorded phone conversations
- 911 calls
- Dispatch calls
The precise nature of online legal transcription services makes them valuable resources to lawyers and many other legal professionals. From creating a plan for a trial to organizing appeals or reviewing evidence, transcriptions can be a powerful tool for saving time and money and improving the outcome of your cases.
Create Clarity for the Jury
A professionally prepared legal transcription can be essential in a jury trial. An accurate transcript helps the attorney locate the vital information on the tape when using video or audio-based information in court. Copies of the transcript can also be given to the jury members to clarify the proceedings.
Timestamps in the transcription documents also help organize the flow of information, and clear speaker identification in the documents reduces confusion about who is speaking. Legal professionals can also highlight important aspects of the documents for increased clarity.
Make Information More Accessible
Transcriptions printed on paper or stored digitally allow legal professionals to make notes right on the text and highlight content easily. For example, when trying to find a particular part of an audio or video recording, a lawyer can quickly peruse the text of a transcript to find the exact place of the needed information without listening through the entire audio recording.
When audio and video are transformed into written content, it becomes more accessible. There is no need for equipment or a quiet setting, and the information can be accessed and shared easily. In addition, digitally stored versions can be quickly shared with other attorneys and legal professionals within the firm.
Improve Accurate Recordkeeping
Many legal proceedings, like meetings and depositions, can be incredibly complicated, with evidence from various sources. Conversations often happen quickly and can be challenging to record manually in real time with high accuracy. At the same time, accuracy is of the utmost importance for legal issues, so legal firms should not need to risk making mistakes. High-quality online legal transcripts can ensure that every detail is recorded as presented and offered in an organized and accessible format.
With efficient recordkeeping, legal professionals can quickly access specific pieces of information in an organized manner and be assured that it is entirely accurate. Furthermore, legal transcription services turn lengthy audio files into easily readable text that can be organized and searched according to keywords.
As a result, law firms and legal professionals can enjoy improved recordkeeping to stay organized and find what they need much faster, saving time and money for the firm and its clients. In addition, with accurate transcriptions of evidence, conflicting data from eyewitnesses or police reports can be more quickly identified, allowing attorneys to be better prepared in less time and leading to better outcomes for their clients.
Improve Communication with Clients and Their Families
Certain legal proceedings allow audio recordings with the state and the judge’s permission. Transcribing a legal proceeding or trial can help the client and their family better understand the legal process and what occurred. Often, family members cannot be present in a court setting, and a trial transcription can help educate them and ease their minds.
Clients who are hard of hearing, have processing differences, or speak English as a second language will likely benefit from a visual representation of the evidence at hand and the trial. This creates a feeling of trust for your client and reassures them that they understand the process.
FAQs About Our Legal Transcription Services
What is the turnaround time for legal transcription services?
Preferred Transcriptions delivers fast turnaround times for transcriptions, usually 24-48 hours depending on factors such as the volume of audio you upload at one time. However, rush transcription jobs are rarely a problem for legal transcription. Just let us know, and we’ll get it back to you as soon as possible!
Are there any specific formatting requirements for legal transcriptions?
Our professional transcriptionists at Preferred Transcriptions can return your legal transcripts in any format necessary. We also can provide specialized formatting such as time-stamping and verbatim transcription.
Are your transcriptionists familiar with legal terminology?
Yes! All of our professional transcriptionists are trained and have deep knowledge of legal terms as well as medical terms and those of other industries, which can come in handy depending on the details of your case. If they ever have a question, they can contact one of our management team for clarification.
Do you usually assign a project manager whom we can contact in case of any queries?
We pride ourselves in providing outstanding customer service! Feel free to contact us anytime at 888-779-5888 or at info@preferredtranscriptions.com and one of our client service managers will get back to you ASAP. No automated phone services, no “customer service representative” – unless we’re on the line with another client, we will answer your call!
How do you ensure that our legal records will be kept confidential?
Preferred Transcriptions follows the same HIPAA-compliant policies for managing data with all our medical transcription clients. That means:
- We use secure servers to upload audio files and transfer transcripts
- All transcriptionists use locked computers
- Data including audio transcriptions and files are immediately deleted from computers once the completed job is uploaded back to the server
- All transcription work is completed by U.S.-based transcriptionists – we do not send any of your confidential data overseas where our laws do not apply
- Most of our team of professional transcriptionists have been with us for years, and new transcriptionists are closely vetted
How accurate is your legal transcription service?
Officially, we maintain an industry-standard 98% accuracy rate for all transcription, but in practice it is usually higher. We employ only native-English speaking, U.S.-based transcriptionists, which reduces errors related to language, accents, culture, understanding of the legal system, and other errors which can result from using offshore transcription services or AI transcription systems. For our clients, that means less time reviewing and fixing transcriptions, and more time doing the work they were trained to do.
What types of legal recordings can you transcribe?
Preferred Transcriptions can transcribe any type of audio or video recording including:
- Depositions and summaries
- Recorded phone conversations
- Administrative hearings
- Internal Affairs Interviews
- IME patient encounters
- Other administrative interviews or meetings
- Personal dictated notes
Essentially, our professional legal transcriptionists can transcribe any recorded event.
Can you transcribe legal recordings with multiple speakers?
Yes, multiple speakers are not a problem. If you are recording some sort of forum such as a roundtable or meeting, we strongly recommend that speakers speak one at a time. It’s not always possible, but this will speed up the transcription process and reduce your costs.
What type of digital files can you transcribe for legal and courts proceedings?
Preferred Transcriptions can transcribe most types of digital files (audio and video) including:
- MOV
- MP3
- MP4
- MPEG
- MPEG-4 Audio
- WAV
- WMA
- WMV
If you have any questions about your file format, contact us at info@preferredtranscriptions.com or 888-779-5888.
What dictation options are available?
We recommend that you use a digital recorder for your dictation. However, cellphones now have decent record functions. We recommend that you dictate in quiet, closed rooms that do not have running fans including AC or heat.
Get more dictation tips here. Although these tips are aimed at doctors, the same principles apply for everyone in the legal profession.
Experience
Can “STAT” Apply to Legal Transcription?
We love helping our clients whenever we can. Preferred Transcription is blessed to have outstanding clients, and we’ve worked with many attorneys and law offices for years. They keep coming back to us because of our fast and accurate legal transcriptions, our attention to detail, and because we’ll bend over backwards for them when needed.
Criminal Attorney Needs Hearing Transcription “STAT”
Case in point: one of our criminal attorney clients approached us in a panic one day. Due to back-to-back hearings, our client needed a transcript of the first hearing to present to the second hearing scheduled for later that afternoon.
We cleared the decks for him. First, we needed to get a recording of the hearing. However, our client didn’t have a copy of the audio, so we contacted the County Court directly to obtain a copy on his behalf. We pulled in extra transcriptionists to get this turned around (much) faster than normal for him. This attorney is a great person on top of everything else, so it was really important to us that we were able to help out in a time of need.
We’re proud to say that within a couple of hours we had the completed transcript to him so his office could print it out in hardcopy to present to the court. We don’t know if the attorney was more thankful or more relieved! Either way, Preferred Transcriptions made a huge difference in his case.
Divorce Attorney Needs Days of Transcription Quickly
In another case, a divorce attorney we’ve worked with closely over the years came to us with a special problem. One of her clients was in a messy divorce – the equitable distribution hearing alone lasted nine days. The hearing generated hours and hours of statements, testimonies, questions, and answers. However, the following court date was coming up, which meant she needed a full transcription of that hearing quickly.
Although she was nervous we wouldn’t complete her legal transcription before the court date, in reality she would have preferred to have it in advance so she could review and make notes. Once again, Preferred Transcriptions’ professional transcriptionists rose to the challenge. We turned around dozens of hours of recordings faster than the deadline date to give her the time she needed to review properly. She said she was forever grateful, but really we are grateful to have clients like her who have entrusted her sensitive data to us all these years.
So, to answer the question, yes, “STAT” most certainly can apply to legal transcription! And Preferred Transcriptions can provide it. If you’re ever stuck and need a quick turnaround, contact us at info@preferredtranscriptions.com or 888-779-5888 and let’s see how we can help.
Testimonials
“Our company uses Preferred Transcriptions daily. They have accommodated all of our needs. I receive all of my reports in a 24-hour timeframe. They also type dictated reports and I receive them the same day which is an asset. I would highly recommend this company to anyone.”
— MRI Facility, Philadelphia, PA
“We are consistently pleased with the quality and timeliness of our transcribed reports. Preferred Transcriptions is extremely flexible to meet our individual and changing needs and their customer satisfaction is fantastic. Their services are highly recommended.”
— HIMS Director
Finding the Right Legal Transcription Service Online
When transcribing legal documents, you must use a credible transcription service. Mistakes within legal documents can significantly impact contract terms and the document’s viability and look unprofessional. With the importance of accuracy within documents, employing a transcription service is the best option. Here are some tips for finding the right legal transcription service.
Things to Consider When Choosing A Legal Transcription Service
There are several considerations to make when choosing a legal transcription service online. You may want to look at the quality of their:
Service rates
- Turnaround times
- Security measures
- Credibility
Ensuring a transcription service meets these requirements is extremely important, as legal documents hold significant weight. Hiring the wrong transcription service may result in inaccurate transcriptions or the misuse of information within documents. This can affect the safety and reliability of a legal document for any legal dispute or court case.
Service Rates
When it comes to pricing, typically, the more you pay, the better the product or service you receive. While this isn’t always the case, your transcription service must be transparent in its fees. This would include how they charge, whether by word or time, and if there are possibilities for added or hidden costs.
Turnaround Times
Due to tight court schedules and filing requirements, dates are critical to legal matters. If a legal document isn’t available when required, it can cost you time and money. If the legal document is used in a case, it can significantly impact the trial’s outcome or push it back further.
Security Measures
Legal documents contain confidential and personal information. In the wrong hands, this can cause various problems. If personal information is leaked, it can be used for fraud. If confidential information is saved and released, it can impact a trial or court case and make some resources unusable. Ensuring that a legal transcription service utilizes the proper safety measures prevents these possible problems from happening.
Credibility
Legal transcription relies on credible customer service. The credibility or expertise of a service will determine the accuracy and safety of your transcribed legal document. When employing a service, try requesting samples of transcribed legal documents they’ve done in the past. This helps ensure the service has the proper tools and knowledge to transcribe your document accurately and safely.
Unlock the Power of Efficiency in Your Legal Practice with Preferred Transcriptions
Don’t let the burden of transcription slow you down—experience the speed, accuracy, and reliability our expert team provides. Whether it’s depositions, meetings, or internal interviews, we’re here to streamline your workflow.
Contact us today for a personalized consultation and discover how our tailored transcription services can elevate your practice. Send us your recordings, and we’ll send you your completed documents within 24 hours! Elevate your efficiency—partner with Preferred Transcriptions now!