It’s not hyperbole to say that legal transcription is a vital part of a fair and accurate justice system. Without a written record of the things said, details might get missed, which could impact lives. The sanctity of the record could very well be the difference between an innocent person going to jail or a guilty one going free. That’s just one of the benefits of legal transcription!

Legal transcriptions provide an accurate, verbatim recording of witness testimonies and judge or jury decisions. To produce a legal transcription, a legal transcriptionist transcribes a proceeding from audio or spoken format into a typed transcript formatted for its purpose, either digital or on paper.

In addition to the sanctity of the legal system, legal transcription provides many practical benefits for CRAs and law firms alike. Here are some of the biggest:

1. Improves Court Proceedings Accessibility for Attorneys

Professional legal transcription is ideal for attorneys, because it makes court proceedings much more accessible than an audio or video recording might be. Timestamps, speaker identification, and the good ol’ “CONTROL F” function help attorneys keep track of the flow of information and the timeline of events, without having to scrub through an audio file. Finding what you need is much easier and quicker with a text file.

2. Easily Highlight Important Parts of Legal Events

Legal transcription is superior to audio and video files because it creates a transcript that withstands time and maintains the accuracy of the record of events that can be used for various purposes. Highlighting passages of a text file helps generate questions and keep track of the most important facts in a case. Once highlighted, it is easier to find the same information again later.

3. Helps Organize Files and Notes

In general, a text file is leaps and bounds better for organization purposes than audio and video. For instance, you can copy and paste certain facts, quotes, and sections onto other documents with ease (and without altering the original document in any way). This can be handy for presenting evidence, preparing your statements, or just gathering thoughts in a certain order.

4. Maintains Precision and Clarity and Accuracy

The last thing an attorney wants is to appear unprepared or inaccurate. Professional law transcription provides an accurate, specific account of court sessions, depositions, and other legal proceedings that attorneys can trust when preparing for their cases.

This is especially important for attorneys that are involved in complicated cases, such as those with multiple witnesses or conflicting police reports. Using an accurate legal audio transcription to review case details offers an easier way to access details; you can search and reference a text document in real time, as opposed to scrubbing through a video. This allows you to find information or present evidence in court without disruption. Rev transcripts even include a glossary of key terms with their reference points, for even easier access to information.

5. Provides Real-World Examples For Law Students

Studying to be an attorney is a time-consuming affair, and as much as most law students would love to witness court proceedings first-hand, it’s not often in the cards. After all, there’s studying to do! This is where legal transcriptions come in handy. The purpose of transcript samples is to provide accurate depictions of the legal process, so what better thing to study for a little real-world experience?

Legal transcription examples from court situations can provide valuable insights for law students, compared to hypothetical examples provided in lectures or textbooks. Students can use legal transcriptions to study for exams, learn how to phrase questions, and prepare for trials. When they have their own copy of a legal transcription, they can take notes and use it to study however they like.

6. Makes the Appeal Process Simpler

In the vast majority of court cases, someone is unhappy with the result. This is where the appeal process plays a part. In the case of an appeal, legal transcriptions can make an enormous difference. Having written records and legal transcriptions from every part of the legal process can make a huge difference for attorneys working on an appeal. Rather than sifting through hours of audio and video footage for specific case details, an attorney can search a text document with just a few keystrokes.

Often, a legal transcription is required for an appeal to happen at all, so having one ahead of time can really speed up the process.

7. Offers Cost Savings

Anyone who’s ever retained or offered legal services knows that, while necessary, the hourly rate isn’t cheap! Listening to audio recordings to take notes, build cases, or find specific details can stack hours in a hurry, so it makes sense for all parties involved to retain professional legal transcription. It saves clients boatloads of money, and frees attorneys up to spend their time focusing on other, more important details.

A legal transcription service, especially one that combines AI services backed by humans, is one of the more cost-effective transcription options available to lawyers. For example, Rev provides legal transcription services for a low per-minute fee. When you take into account how long it might take you to create a legal transcription, you’ll realize that Rev’s transcription services can save you (and your clients) an enormous amount of time, money, and hassle.

8. Allows Attorneys to Present Findings to a Jury Easier

The format of a legal transcription can help attorneys who present video or audio recordings as evidence in court. Along with the recording, you can provide a transcript to jurors and others involved in a trial or hearing to make sure everyone gets the same information from the evidence, reducing the risk of misinterpretation.

9. Provide Documentation

Digital documents — and even paper documents — are much easier to handle than audio and video files. Whether you’re shipping legal documents, storing them, or just trying to access something that’s on the record, text formats are infinitely more malleable than hours and hours of recordings. Legal transcription is much easier to organize, store, and handle than piles of dictation and hours of audio. It saves lots of physical space as well.

But most importantly, the document is there when you need it. Assuming your organization is…organized.

10. Have Peace of Mind

With any sort of legal document, security is always top of mind. There’s something soothing about the fact that printed text on paper can be kept under lock and key, as opposed to digital recordings.

In today’s digital universe, there’s nothing more secure than a piece of paper, safe from prying ears and overzealous hackers. Though reliable transcription services (like us) place security as their highest priority, physical documents are often the safest documents. And legal transcription is the only way to turn audio or video into a physical document.

11. Turn Around Information Quickly

The quickest an attorney, paralegal, or intern can listen and note an audio or video recording of court happenings is the speed at which the audio can play, and it’s usually much longer when accounting for typing speed and accuracy checks. That’s a lot of man-hours spent turning audio into usable data.

A professional legal transcriptionist or legal transcription service can turn around an accurate, secure transcription in a fraction of the time as most non-professionals, This means that the legal team can get back to work as soon as possible.

What Type of Events Use Legal Transcriptions?

Legal transcription is used for more than just recording courtroom cases and depositions, although those two events are a huge part of the usage. Any interviews with law enforcement, witnesses, doctors, or anyone involved in a case can be transcribed. 911 calls, jury discussions, and public hearings are just a few others.

Here’s a comprehensive (but not complete) list of what legal proceedings can or should be transcribed:

• Depositions
• Hearings
• Statements Of Record
• Examinations Under Oath
• Trials
• 911 calls
• Police interviews
• Body camera and crime scene footage
• Jury selection
• Legal consultations
• Arbitration
• Public hearings
• Witness testimony or interviews

Why Is Transcription Such an Important Process?

Transcription is such an important part of the legal process because it provides a text record of court proceedings. It’s a more useful and accessible way to review and absorb what happened in the courtroom.

However, the accuracy of legal transcriptions is vital to the whole legal process. If details are missed or incorrect, people might suffer. Imagine an innocent person going to jail because a witness testimony was recorded incorrectly. Transcript proofreading is important! At Rev, we provide ourselves on the accuracy of our legal transcription services. Rev delivers configurable ASCII-formatted transcripts with 99% accuracy in as little as 24 hours. Accurate and efficient!

The Benefits of Legal Transcription Only Get Better With Rev

Legal transcription is crucial to preserving the sanctity of our legal system. It helps lawyers find and organize the information they need to present accurate evidence and build airtight cases. Unless you’d rather become a court reporter or stenographer yourself, a reliable legal transcription service can really make a legal team’s job easier. That’s why we’re here!