Legal professionals are facing ever-increasing workloads, greater administrative demands and increased expectations on quality and turnaround time for their work.
Over recent years there have been significant advances in law firm practice and document management systems, ancillary software, mobile access to files, the digitisation of research resources and online access to court files. However, it all still relies heavily on the manual input of data and content.
Our four part series will look at the challenges and opportunities for firms of all sizes to accurately and reliably capture and then process the huge volume of content that they must deal with.
Law is all about data and information, and the ability to accurately capture and then analyse it. It remains a challenge for legal professionals and their teams to accurately capture and enter all the required information for their caseload into their relevant systems.
Legal professionals are often dealing with high caseloads and in any one day can be dealing with multiple matters, moving between back-to-back meetings, phone calls, conferences and court appearances.
The age of handwritten notes and relying on memory alone is long gone. Even the manual typing of dictation also relies heavily on the professional being able to deliver the audio file to the in-house typist and then of course the labour to transcribe it.
Depending on availability, workload of the typist and their skill and efficiency, there will always be delays in the professional receiving the transcribed document. That is all before the professional has the opportunity to review it and put it into its final form.
With firms only spending 2.3% of their revenue per annum on IT/technology hardware and consumables and 1.2% on software licencing,[1] there is stiff competition for lawyers to be able to get access to the best solutions to drive their productivity and profitability.
However, modern technology has provided a range of solutions that can accelerate the creation of typed content, and in doing so reduce complexity and costs of the process of creating that content all in a secure environment.
Even if a firm has traditional in-house transcriptionists, a transcription workflow management platform can provide a robust, comprehensive transcription solution. No matter the size or volume of a firm’s transcription requirements, a modern transcription workflow management solution can have recordings transcribed into comprehensive, formatted documents quickly, more accurately, securely and economically than is possible with traditional in-house tools and processes.
The more sophisticated solutions enable professionals to split lengthy, multi-channel recordings into segments to be distributed to multiple typists and then seamlessly reintegrated into complete and accurate documents, creating significant time and cost efficiencies. This is a process that most firms currently struggle to achieve effectively and efficiently.
If a firm is considering overhauling its current approach to transcription or considering moving to an outsourced provider, it is worth looking at a hybrid solution, which uses bespoke technology to capture and record spoken meetings, testimonies and statements,supported by a professional team of highly trained and sklilled specialists. This removes the onus on a firm to locate, train and manage professionals and elimate the associated costs.
A powerful combination of technologies and professional expertise means that even the most challenging transcription tasks can be completed fast, accurately, efficiently and economically. The best-in-class solutions use advanced technologies, including AI-powered legal transcription software solutions together with professional editing teams to provide fast, accurate and economical transcription services.
In cases where content production requires a more diverse range of inputs – say from professionals working out in the field or performing remote work rather than being in an office – transcription solutions now exist which record audio input using a mobile application (or even that of a third-party provider) via a mobile device such as a phone or tablet.
Once the audio has been captured, it can be transcribed via an AI-powered platform, which will provide a highly detailed and accurate report in the form of a Microsoft Word document within minutes. This can then be saved on the firm’s or professional’s local system, leaving that employee to continue with any further editing or finalisation required.
Alternatively the firm can route the machine-generated transcription to a transcription service for professional editing. This is an extremely powerful tool for legal profressionals, as it enables the generation of high-quality and lengthy documents in extremely short timeframes.
There are limited solutions out there that provide a fully integrated and seamless content capture and document creation system. However, these leading workflow solutions can demonstratably increase efficiency, provide clarity and precision to the data intake and the production of legal work – all in a secure and reliable environment. The outcomes delivered to legal professionals improve productivity and profitability and – perhaps most importantly – gives them time back in their day.
In our next article we delve into the tools available for lawyers to work remotely or on the go without compromising their productivity or performance – stay tuned…
[1] Findex Australian Legal Industry – Financial Performance Survey published 31/3/22.
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