Skills Required For Legal Transcription
What are the basic skills that a good legal transcription professional should have? A legal professional transcriptionist’s job is to convert the audio documents/recordings into typed format so that it may be used by the law professionals either in court or elsewhere. Some of the basic skills and responsibilities of a legal transcriptionist include,
Good keyboarding / typing skill
Comprehension skill
Computer skills
Good understanding of legal concepts/ terms
Good communication skill
Good memory
Ability to absorb details
Be able to sit and type for long hours
Should meet deadlines
Good at using reference material
Be a good editor
Document formatting skill
Document correspondence skill
Experience with testimony, evidence, pleading, briefs /summary
Active listening skill
Some times the audio recording received by the legal transcriptionist can be of bad quality. Either the recorded voice may be feeble, or the speaker may me very fast / slows in his speech. A good transcription must also be able to handle background noise, whispers and mumblings etc. He may also have to make intelligent guesses when some words are not very clear. This is possible only if allowed and not during verbatim transcription. Tapes may have to be re winded and re-heard more than once.
Working from home is becoming a very common practice for legal transcription professionals. Those working at a law firm come under the category of legal assistant. Outsourcing of legal transcription and other LPO (legal process outsourcing) contracts to countries like India has now made legal transcription a quicker process that can be availed online and over telephone. Many online and offline colleges offer different programs and hone the legal transcription skills besides other related skills like, court reporting, scoping etc.
The author of this article is John Kessel of Managed Outsource Solutions, a US based company that offers services in Legal Outsourcing and Legal Transcription for clients across the US.
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