You want to make sure that you have developed the needed skills before getting your first legal transcription job.
Building your reputation and credibility as a reliable transcriptionist is the key to getting repeat business and referrals from your clients.
Here are some of the skills you'll need to be become a successful legal transcriptionist (LT):
- Excellent typing speed and accuracy. A minimum typing speed of 70 words per minute is typically required. Some (but not all) legal transcription work requires a fast turnaround time and having a good typing speed helps you deliver transcripts on time. Accuracy is extremely important to build a successful career in legal transcription.
- Excellent listening skills.
- A strong command of the English language.
- Excellent grammar, punctuation, spelling and proofreading skills. Legal transcriptionists must ensure that the transcripts are free of spelling, punctuation, grammar, and typographical errors. Janet Shaughnessy mentioned that “The difference between two similar-sounding words that are spelled differently can change the testimony of a witness.”
- Become familiar with transcription software.
- Know some formatting features in Microsoft Word. Module 3 of Janet Shaughnessy’s course covers in detail what you need to know about Word and how to use it as a transcriptionist. Click here to get more information about the legal transcription course I recommend.
- Have strong ethics. Legal transcriptionists must be committed to completing within the required time. Missed deadlines will cost you future jobs. Much of the content that legal transcriptionists are transcribing is confidential. Disclosing information to others can have serious consequences and affect other people’s lives.
Transcriptionists in any field must possess fast, accurate typing skills, a good command of the English language, have excellent listening, spelling and grammar skills and have basic word processing and computer knowledge.
Industry-specific skills:
Knowledge of legal terminology and procedures is a must for legal transcriptionists. Legal transcriptionists need to know legal terminology to understand the content they are transcribing and produce accurate transcripts. They need to be familiar with legal document formats required for a variety of proceedings and must be familiar with legal systems, legal procedures and court procedures to be able to prepare documents according to statutory requirements.
How to learn legal transcription:
Formal training is not required but recommended to become a successful legal transcriptionist. Having some legal experience as a paralegal, legal secretarial, legal assistant or court reporter can replace the training.
If you don’t have a legal background, a good legal transcription course will teach you what you need to know and help you acquire the knowledge and skills you need to become a legal transcriptionist.
I highly recommend the legal transcription course by Janet Shaughnessy. Janet covers legal procedures, terminology and formats extensively in her course. Her students also get access to a library of templates to help them become comfortable with formatting. Click here to find out more about Janet's course.
Want to learn more about legal transcription?
Subscribe to Janet's FREE legal transcription mini-course.
TRANSCRIPTION RESOURCES
- FREE General Transcription Mini-Course.
- Detailed, multi-media General Transcription Course.
- General Transcription Practice Files.
- FREE Legal Transcription Mini-Course.
- Medical Transcription Course.
- Check out this complete transcription starter kit at Amazon.
- Grammarly is the best online spelling and grammar checker to help you edit your transcripts. Grammarly has a free version and a premium version. Check it out here.
Disclaimer: I only recommend products I believe in. If you purchase a product through a referral link, I will get a commission. It won’t cost you a dime extra, and it helps me to keep providing you with quality information.