This news report that aired on WCVB in Boston earlier this year outlines the serious problem the legal industry is facing with electronic recording. However, it doesn’t accurately identify the cause of the real problem. Electronic recording technology has come a long way. Thousands of courts throughout the country have already installed high-tech recording equipment that creates multichannel audio files. Each voice in the courtroom is captured with a sensitive unidirectional microphone that enables the transcriber to isolate each specific voice during a proceeding. Outside noises that may be present during a court proceeding can now easily be eliminated with the press of a button. While the quality of the recording does rely on the speaker to be in close proximity to the microphone, judges all over the country are increasingly more cognizant of this, and they are instructing attorneys and witnesses to remain by their microphone.
At this point the vast majority of recordings that are coming out of courtrooms in the United States are perfectly suitable for the creation of an accurate legal record. The problems occur on the transcription end. Many transcription companies are outsourcing their work overseas, often using untrained typists to produce these records. Many of these typists are not even trained on how to correctly operate their playback software. Many have little to no experience in creating a legal record. LegalTran recognizes that the current system must be improved, but we also believe that the blame for inaccurate transcripts has been misplaced. The audio recording itself is not the problem; the method of transcription is the culprit.
This is why LegalTran Transcription Services is the solution for all court systems, attorneys, judges, and even court reporters. We use only TRAINED STENOGRAPHIC COURT REPORTERS. We call our staff of transcriber-reporters “legal transporters.” We understand that there is absolutely no way to replace the skill of a human court reporter, and this is exactly how we are changing the industry one transcript at a time. By using LegalTran to transcribe a proceeding, you are 100% guaranteed that only a fully trained court reporter is providing a finished and accurate transcript.
