The act of transferring spoken dialogue into written documentation is known as legal transcription. A legal transcriptionist will listen to an attorney’s dictation and write it down in the form of detailed, word-for-word legal documents. Because they transcribe spoken word in real time, a courtroom clerk or court reporter is technically a type of legal transcriptionist, but they are not commonly referred to as such.
For many people, legal transcription is an excellent career choice. Although certification programs are available, formal education beyond a high school diploma is usually not required. Many law firms require their transcriptionists to have some legal terminology knowledge, which can improve the accuracy of legal transcription. Furthermore, legal transcriptionists can often work from home and set their own hours as long as they consistently meet deadlines and deliver high-quality, error-free work.
Anyone interested in working in legal transcription must have excellent typing and computer skills, as well as a thorough understanding of the English language and proper grammar. Because transcriptionists are frequently self-employed, they must be able to proofread and edit their own work. When a transcriptionist works for a transcription company, the company may have editors who can check the documents for errors; however, the ability to deliver work that is reasonably correct and proofread is still important.
A transcriptionist working in legal transcription will typically receive a digital dictation recording that can be listened to on a computer using a transcription program. Most transcriptionists buy a foot pedal to stop, start, or speed up and slow down the recording, as well as a headset to listen to the recording carefully. The transcriptionist will then begin listening to the recording and transcribing; he or she will need to use context clues to decipher unclear words, and if the recording is too jumbled, he or she may need to contact her employer for clarification.
After the legal transcription is completed, the document must be formatted into a legal report according to the attorney’s specifications. The majority of attorneys will specify how the reports should be formatted. Medical transcription is another common type of transcriptionist job; however, due to the unfamiliar terminology used physicians in medical reports, medical transcription usually requires additional training.