Legal Transcription Services

Our court certified transcription services of audio and video files

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Our professional human transcriptionists guarantee the highest level of accuracy of legal transcripts from audio recordings of hearings, depositions, interrogations, wiretaps and other evidence courts may require.

The transcription team at Espresso Translations is certified and ensures precision in transcribing all legal audio recordings. Legal transcription work is important for official and accurate documentation of discussions that happen during legal proceedings.

In this space, verbatim transcription counts: from judicial processes to conversations with clients and colleagues, legal professionals deal with a lot of audio visual content. To transcribe this content accurately advanced technology is needed to produce reliable and high quality documents.

Accurate transcription tools make the process more efficient, saving valuable time, so legal professionals can focus on more strategic tasks. There are many software solutions that offer both automatic and manual transcription options, some combine both by having human transcription experts to refine the text generated by AI.

Category	Description
Service Type	U.S. Legal Transcription Services
Industries Covered	Law Firms, Courts, Corporate Legal Departments, Notaries, Government Agencies
Types of Documents	Court Hearings, Depositions, Contracts, Legal Briefs, Witness Statements, Meeting Minutes, Interrogations
Transcriber Expertise	Legal Experts, Certified Stenographers, Experienced Legal Professionals
Quality Assurance	Accuracy Checks, Quality Control, Compliance with Legal Standards
Technology Used	Transcription Software, Voice Recognition Systems, Legal Databases
Turnaround Time	Varies based on project complexity, typically from a few hours to several days
Pricing Model	Per word, Per hour, Per project
Confidentiality Measures	Confidentiality Agreements, Secure File Transfer, Encrypted Communications
Additional Services	Legal Translation, Notarization, Document Summarization, Legal Consulting
Client Support	24/7 Customer Service, Project Management, Dedicated Account Managers
Sample Projects	Transcription of Court Hearings, Transcription of Depositions, Transcription of Interrogations, Contract Drafting
Certification	ISO 9001, ATA Certification, Compliance with Local Regulations

Court approved audio and video transcription services for law firms

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Our U.S. legal transcribers are skilled in converting spoken words, especially from court sessions, depositions, hearings, meetings and phone calls into high quality transcripts. All audio and video transcriptions are legal under U.S. law.

What is legal transcription and translation?

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Transcription converts audio and video content into written text. Audio files may be on discs or digital formats like .mp3, .wav, .mp4, .mov, etc. depending on transcription needs.

Legal Transcription Services: Transcribe dialogues in court and depositions, hearings, meetings, and phone and message  conversations. Transcription can also be applied to audio and video recordings.

Legal Translation Services: Translate court or other transcriptions from one language into another.

Professional transcribers use specialized software to save time and improve the accuracy of their work. Work within this field requires high accuracy and a combination of technology, experience and industry knowledge.

What does it mean to transcribe legal documents?

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Transcriptions are used in many legal contexts. Here are a few examples: statements, depositions, and testimony

Exact transcription of these (including pauses) is key. This helps lawyers to analyze the case, track changes over time, spot discrepancies and plan.

• Hearings and court proceedings: Keeping a written record for each stage of these, often long and complicated, proceedings is vital for everyone involved, especially the judge.
• Legal consultations and client meetings: Lawyers typically meet with clients and other stakeholders throughout a legal project. Accurate transcription of these meetings is important for lawyers and others involved.
• Dictation and transcription of legal documents: Lawyers and notaries often dictate documents such as deeds, judgments, contracts and letters to paralegals. Accurate transcription of these documents is essential.
• Tax discussions: Tax consultation meetings typically discuss sensitive data, and are full of numbers and jargon. Accurate transcripts of these discussions help lawyers and clients reference key points later.
• Audio and video transcription: Recordings are often key evidence in legal cases, and legal transcriptions let investigators easily analyze the content.
• Phone calls and text messages: The transcripts of calls and messages are used in case files, and court, and to help investigators sift through information. Although privacy laws regarding calls and messages are continually changing, written records of these conversations still play a big part in many legal cases.

Confidentiality is also an important factor. Legal transcriptions contain sensitive and private information so a transcription service must be completely discreet. Legal transcriptionists are experienced in observing strict security protocols. And expert legal transcription services always comply with privacy regulations to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. All Espresso Translations’ transcription processes are HIPPA compliant.

Who needs a law transcription service?

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High-quality legal transcription solutions are critical to gathering and protecting information lawyers need. Having written documents available makes life easier, faster to get to the point, to share with other legal experts and to build complex and comprehensive strategies. Plus it’s helpful for people with hearing disabilities.

It’s not just legal professionals who need professional legal transcription services. The transcriptions can be used to create professional subtitles for video evidence and court audio-visual systems to make legal proceedings more accessible.

Transcriptions require careful attention to detail because a misinterpretation, typo or incorrect punctuation in legal documents can change the meaning of a statement and have serious consequences.

When legal transcriptionists work on such material, they take into account context, tone, terminology, conversational flow, subtleties and idiosyncrasies.

This requires many years of experience transcribing, including audio and video materials. To get maximum accuracy the transcriber must try to include all possible annotations. And always review and edit the text after completion.

What Do Our Clients Say?

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Our project managers are great with all clients. Here’s what some have said:

How does legal transcription process work?

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Below, we explain the 3 main approaches to doing legal transcriptions:

1. By hand: The transcriptionist listens and types what they hear. They may use tools to slow down speech or control playback.

2. By computer: Software turns speech into text. Good audio can give 80% or better accuracy. And, AI transcription systems improve over time.

3. Mixed: Software does the first draft, then human transcribers fix errors and improve the text.

Our legal transcriptionists specialize in such methods to deliver a fast and accurate transcript to be used in any court case or other legal proceedings.

High quality audio recordings make transcribing them easier. Below are some key things to bear in mind when setting up equipment to record testimony, depositions, etc. 

• If there are multiple speakers – use a separate microphone for each one.
• Deactivate the ‘voice activated’ feature on recording devices.
• Ask those participating not to talk at the same time as another person.
• Try to eliminate any background or ambient noise that might be intrusive on the recording.

Our experts use some of the latest tools such as Amberscript, TranscribeMe, Otter.Ai, and Rev to obtain high quality recordings. We follow the legal industry quality standards for reviewing and formatting transcripts before delivering them as Word or PDF files (or other formats if requested).

How much does an accurate legal transcription service cost?

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There are three ways to pay:

• Per minute/hour of audio (about $1.10 per minute)
• Per line of text (5-10 cents per line)
• Per hour of work (about $49 per hour)
• The price depends on the job type, length, difficulty and urgency.

Bad audio, strong accents or multiple speakers add to the cost. Expect to pay $87 to $131 per hour.
Get a quote today.

Where can I find the best U.S. legal transcription company near me?

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To find a reputable agency with experienced staff providing legal transcriptions, you need to consider several factors:

• Quality of service: Accuracy and precision help avoid misunderstandings, confusion, and potential disputes.

• Speed of delivery: How quickly do you need the transcript? If it’s urgent, you don’t want any delays. 

• Price: Try to find a fair price for high quality work. Obviously, a one-off transcription may cost more than if you use the service regularly.

• Reliability: Look for evidence of data confidentiality, security and integrity. Is the service provider HIPPA compliant? 

• Experience: Verify they have expert knowledge of legal terminology.

Espresso Translations are certified experts in this field. Our U.S. legal transcription team is available online for clients worldwide.

How long do legal transcribing services take?

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An inexperienced transcriber types between 40-60 words per minute. For complex transcriptions this can vary a lot. A one hour recording can take up to 10 hours for a novice transcriber. A professional transcriber types between 80-100 words per minute and can transcribe an hour of audio in a couple of hours.

The time needed to complete transcription services for lawyers and other legal professionals depends on the complexity of the transcription: obviously longer and more intricate content will take longer than short and simple pieces.

In terms of speed, the transcription time won’t match the recording time. Legal transcribers use keyboards, not stenographic machines like court reporters.

Some transcription software can do real-time but may not always be accurate and will need to be reviewed afterward.

Other factors that affect the time required are listed below:

Transcription style: Transcription can be categorized into three types: literal, non-literal or intelligent literal. The first includes every word, even superfluous and repetitive ones. The second excludes these words, the third is literal but omits words that don’t contribute to the sentence meaning. The choice of style depends on the recording: non-literal transcriptions are most common. Most people prefer transcriptions without unnecessary words. But in some cases (like an interview with a psychologist) you may need to pay attention to pauses and false starts.

• Quality of the recording: Outdoor recordings with background noise are harder to transcribe than studio audio.
• Number of speakers: The more speakers involved in the recording, the more difficult the transcription process will be, especially without video to identify speakers.
• Characteristics of the speakers: Accents, rhythms, tones and cadences can complicate understanding and transcription accuracy.
• Theme of the recording: If the transcription is about a well-known or familiar topic, the process will be simpler and faster. If it’s about a technical topic unknown to the transcriber, it will take more time.
• Language of the recording:If the spoken language is not common, a transcriber who is fluent in that language and can understand colloquial expressions is needed. This also adds to transcription time.

The legal field is characterized by urgent deadlines, emergencies and sudden requests. So a reliable transcription service must be able to deliver high quality transcriptions fast.

Espresso Translations prioritizes speed and usually aims for fast delivery. For urgent requests we offer an express service that can cut delivery time in half without compromising accuracy; we simply reallocate resources to speed up the process.

To get a quote for the transcription of your recordings, fill in the Espresso Translations form.