Any attempt to list and describe all of the document or documentation needs of all law offices and all potential situations is doomed to failure. There are simply too many variables that arise to generate a meaningful, comprehensive list. But here are some samples and typical documents that are generated in the course of many common-law practices and by existing SpeakWrite client users.
Summary
1. Correspondence
Frequent correspondence is the lifeblood of any office, and one of the key uses to which lawyer clients put their SpeakWrite accounts. The SpeakWrite legal transcriptionists are experienced in the set-up, construction, and content of it, and can be expected to generate flawless work of this kind, very quickly.
Clients should also know, however, that every SpeakWrite account has the capability of storing frequently used documents and/or document components as transcription templates that can streamline and more easily facilitate their work.
For example, attorney or firm letterhead can be easily stored in a client’s SpeakWrite account or in his law firm’s group account and then simply incorporated into the draft work by reference during the course of the verbal dictation. Likewise, standardized letters, demands, responses, etc. can also be stored as templates. Some attorneys store as templates specific paragraphs or “blocks” of standardized repeatable language which they can easily incorporate into their work.
For example, “Typist, please use my standard letterhead template, use the template for ‘insurance company demand letter’, and at the conclusion of the letter use my standard ‘signature block template’. The body of the letter will be as follows …”.
There is no charge to store as many templates as a client wishes to have available in their account, and the storage, additions, removals, modification, etc. of such are totally within the client’s control.
2. Legal Pleadings
The use of repetitive legal pleadings is an essential part of any sort of litigation or litigation-related work. Sometimes stored forms can be used in their entirety from prior work completed, or more often, the existing formats can be used as a starting place for new work, with the attorney dictating the variable or narrative portion of the material to customize it for the work at hand.
Again, with the use of templates, attorneys can be versatile and can adapt the combination of their availability and the SpeakWrite service to do large amounts of work in relatively short periods of time. Moreover, by the use of certain customized templates as described above, the attorney can verbally “construct” the principal outline of the pleadings to be used, then dictate the content required for their specific situation.
For example, “Typist, please use my ‘federal court motion to dismiss’ template, at the top, insert my ‘Smith v. Jones heading template’, and at the bottom of the pleading put my ‘signature block and certificate of service template’ in my Smith v. Jones case. Then, beginning with paragraph 2, the text should read as follows…”.
Other specific uses of these templates can be developed to suit the attorney’s requirements. For example, many clients will dictate a set of received written Interrogatories into the SpeakWrite service as a job, with the instruction to the typist to save that job as a template, then once that is completed, they can dictate their answers to those Interrogatories and have them completed and included directly into one final, fileable document.
3. Zoom Calls, Meetings or Depositions
Zoom has become the go-to solution for replacing in-person depositions and meetings in times of the coronavirus pandemic. Did you know that you can easily order a full transcript of your Zoom meetings using the free SpeakWrite integration? This will reduce the amount of time spent going back and forth between notes, especially if these are hand-written. Having a searchable, accurate, human-typed transcription of a Zoom meeting can definitely improve your team’s productivity.
4. Memoranda
Oftentimes it is advantageous to an attorney to create a memorandum of information necessary to circulate within their office or to provide to clients or to opponents in regard to pending litigation. This can be done in any form required, in that the SpeakWrite typists are all live personnel, experienced in legal matters, and subject to whatever instructions and content are provided.
5. Audio Interviews or Discussions
Using the SpeakWrite’s smartphone App, a user may simply place their smartphone on a table with the SpeakWrite App recording, record the entire contents of multiple party conversations, and then submit those directly to SpeakWrite for transcription. It is a very unobtrusive way of making such a recording, and the client can expect to receive a timely and accurate transcription of the full, verbatim contents of that multiple party conversation every time.
6. Spanish Translation
SpeakWrite can provide a Spanish-language translation of multiple party conversations. This allows an interview being conducted to be done partly in English and partly in Spanish, with the final transcription showing the original content and statements made by all parties to the conversation, alongside a purely English-translated version of such
7. Deposition Notes or Summaries
Many times attorneys are required to or find it advantageous to make summaries of depositions, either for reports to clients or for use in trial preparation later. By regular use of these, SpeakWrite enables the attorney to make these reports in a fashion dramatically easier than has otherwise been available. And by careful use of the template feature, the work involved in creating the notes themselves can be streamlined and minimized.
8. Client Reports
Many clients require periodic reports on the status of a case, discovery undertaken, future plans, etc. Again, by use of the template feature of the SpeakWrite service, the attorney can develop with the client exactly the material they would like to see in these notes, and generate this report directly onto that template and that format.
9. Direct Client Input
Many attorneys have found it valuable to open a separate SpeakWrite account for individual clients to allow that client to provide them with a detailed and complete narrative of facts relevant to the case and in some instances later updates and new facts that are important to the attorney-client representation, but which do not have to necessarily involve the consumption of the attorney’s time in listening to those in real-time.
By use of these accounts, the clients can call in at any time, dictate in their normal speaking pattern all of the notes, observations, new developments, etc. they wish and the attorney can read them when convenient, never missing any of the details of the information provided, but listening to the report in a fraction of the time that would be required to take them in life.
Many divorce attorneys find this feature to be particularly advantageous, and in some circumstances it is also valuable to criminal law attorneys who can provide a way for their clients to provide updated information to them as well, satisfying their obligation to keep themselves fully informed of all facts provided by clients, but also being mindful of the time of all involved.
10. Live Telephone Conversations
Using the SpeakWrite App, clients can record (where lawful) telephone conversations with clients, witnesses, experts, opposing attorneys, multiple party conversations, etc., and have those transcribed and returned to them in a matter of hours. In this way, valuable information and sometimes evidence are preserved.
Also, oftentimes where there are complicated or detailed facts or data provided during the calls, it eliminates the need for taking specific notes during the call itself, knowing that a full and verbatim transcription of the contents of the call, as well as the audio of the call itself, will be returned and available for unlimited review.
11. General Legal Document Preparation
By regular use of the SpeakWrite service, particularly as such involves the use of templates, common but specialized language, recurring transaction structures, etc., lawyer clients are able to quickly and thoroughly build and construct legal documents, contracts, estate planning documents, etc., and quickly and easily customize those to the client situation at hand.
Many such documents involve or require repetitive “stock” language be inserted at various points in the drafting, and by use of the SpeakWrite templates, these can be identified by the attorney, stored once for these templates, and then simply be incorporated by reference thereafter.
12. Detailed Notes with Photo Integration
Many times attorneys are called upon to secure photos of important evidence or circumstances and then generate their findings, observations, notes, or other important information in connection with those photos.
By use of a smartphone, and the SpeakWrite App patented PhotoNotes technology, a client can take photos using their smartphone, contemporaneously dictate at that time whatever notes, information or other supporting or attached data they would like to have captured in regard with it, then continue on with that same process throughout their examination or investigation, and when they receive their SpeakWrite job, they will receive each of the digital photos with the appropriate and associated notes attached to them.
Even though this is not an exhaustive list, it covers the most common legal transcription work that we do for law firms. Our users report increased productivity by saving at least 1 hour per day using our services. Have you used SpeakWrite in other creative ways? Let us know in the comments below!
