Free Transcription Services and Software

Advances in speech recognition technology have made digital transcription services readily available and more affordable. Lately, service providers such as Google Voice have been rolling out free transcription of voicemail. As technology keeps advancing, it may only be a matter of time before even more ambitious free services gain traction and become widely accepted.

How it works

The attorney uses a digital speech recorder, typically made by Sony or Olympus, to record memos, correspondence, briefs, and so on. Today's quality digital recorders are small, ultra-light, and come with immense storage capacity for hundreds of hours of high-quality dictation. They often use a combination of embedded memory and replaceable flash cards. Battery life has been vastly improved as well. Preferably, a noise-canceling headset should be used, combined with voice activation to filter out pauses.

As the next step, the digital speech files (typically in mp3, wave or .dss format) are uploaded to a computer, then transferred to the transcription service via email or File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Depending on the service provider, transcription jobs will either be transcribed via advanced speech recognition technology or by humans, who may themselves use speech recognition instead of a keyboard. Where secretaries are used, jobs are usually randomly assigned for security purposes. In all circumstances, transcribed jobs must be proofread prior to completion for quality assurance purposes.

The normal turnaround is anywhere from 4-24 hours depending on the service level chosen. Once the transcripts have been completed, these are usually returned to the customer via email in the Rich Text Format (RTF). Ideally, the speech files are uploaded to a secure server along with a copy of the transcripts, which will enable the attorney to access the files from anywhere.

How can it be free?

The current free offerings on the market are restricted to a few pages of text per week, which make such services a convenient and cost-cutting supplement for most attorneys. In this event, the transcription service is obviously betting that once the client has grown accustomed to outsourcing work, she will soon start sending larger projects to be transcribed at a premium (usually $2.50-5.00 per page).

But with steady advances in computing power and speech recognition technology, subscription-based or membership-based models are starting to look increasingly attractive. What this means in practice is that virtually unlimited transcription or a generous allowance is becoming available for a modest annual or monthly fee.

How is the quality?

In our experience, an accuracy rate of 90-95 percent or higher is definitely to be expected. In practice, the attorney should be able to share documents “for information purposes only” without even looking at them first. Documents that must be perfectly accurate need to be proofread by the attorney or her secretary, which should take no more than 5-10 minutes per page including minor corrections.

Where to go next...

We are actively engaged in research, development, and consultation with industry professionals. It is our goal to procure free transcription services - as defined in this article - for most of our readers, not only legal professionals. 

The technical advances described in this article have to a large extent been driven by speech recognition software (also known as "voice recognition software" or "transcription software.") The emerging market was interesting at first, with companies such as IBM, Learnout & Hauspie, and Dragon Naturally Speaking competing head to head. Due to a combination of market forces and mishaps, the marketplace has narrowed considerably.

Today, Dragon Naturally Speaking - now produced by Nuance - is the predominant player by far. The product, which is available both for the Windows and Mac operating systems, comes in multiple versions including "Standard," "Preferred," and "Professional." More highly customized, costlier solutions are available for legal professionals and medical professionals respectively.

For users speaking "naturally" at over 120 words per minutes, Dragon Naturally Speaking promises up to 99% accuracy immediately, with further improvements through use of the software. Performance may vary depending on the person and equipment, but most users should not find it too difficult to achieve high accuracy rates.