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I was offered a legal transcription position...sm - Wondering

Posted: Nov 19, 2012

full-time and in-house. She is offering 5 cpl gross so even if someone says "um", I get paid 5 cpl for the whole line. Is this a good line rate. I have not done legal transcription before so I have no idea if this is a decent rate. I feel that is kind of low and would like to ask if she would be willing to raise it.

What do you think?

I was told... - Sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I was told that the charges were legal transcription were the same as for medical. Typing every "um" just means that you are doing verbatim transcription.

Would you type medical for 5 CPL? Also, what definition of a "line" is being used here?

Defintion of a gross line is a line that could have one character. - You misunderstand about the verbatim typing.

[ In Reply To ..]
5 cpl would be good if you're transcribing lots of letters. Furthermore, sometimes their type font is different especially if they use Courier font.

I would try it out and see first and then up it if you think it's not worth it but something tells me that you might be doing okay.

Legal doesn't have to equal medical per se. Actually on the norm, legal pays per audio minute, at least that is what I'm finding online for companies providing legal transcription. The last one I looked at was 75 cents per audio minute up to 1.50 depending on how much you can produce and how fast you can get it back. In other words, the harder you work the more you make.

Generalize much? - Sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Stop putting words into my mouth. Go back and reread what I wrote. Nowhere did I say anything about gross line. YOU did.

All I did was point out that the line must be defined (how many spaces per line, do spaces count or is it VBC?, etc.). In addition, there is a regional variable. Depending upon what region the MT lives in 5 CPL may or may not be a good rate. In some depressed markets, like Detroit and the Deep South, that may be a plum price. Or not... I posed the QUESTION and did not make any statements since I am not a mindreader and have no idea where the OP lives.

Typing every "um" is INDEED verbatim typing, so no I did not misundertand that at all. So again you mistate the facts. I have done my fair share of verbatim transcription for legal professionals.

She used the "um" as an example of a line. - A gross line is a gross line. sm

[ In Reply To ..]
A gross line is a gross line. Spaces have no bearing on that. I said you misunderstood her example of the fact that if the dictator wants the word "um" on a line, will she get 5 cpl for that? I comprehend pretty well. Obviously you do not.

As a matter of fact, medical paid me gross line to include blank lines, so please realize you are not a know it all.

Deep south? What's it matter? We all work online. No one seems to care where you live when they hand out "starting" salaries. This is obviously on-site and I'd have to imagine the lawyer pretty much knows what the going rate is or would not have even suggested it.

oh boy! it is definitely a MONDAY. - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
too early to start this type of thing. gees!

gross line - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
gross line means you are paid for every line, even if it only has 1 character in it, or if it has 80 characters in it. Much depends on the size of the font, the length of the margins, etc. If it is Courier New at 12 pt, with 2 inch margins on either side, at 5 cpl, that is pretty good. I used to work for gross lines (many years ago) with Courier New 12 pt font and margins at 2 inches on either side, and I grossed more money in that year than I ever have since at 65 character lines and I was getting 3.75 cmp for gross lines. I thought it "sounded" quite low, as well, but on average, it was better than what they pay for 65 cpl. Ask about the font settings and margin settings first, and if reasonable, give it a shot. I think you will be surprised at how much more you are getting!

Yes. You said it much better than I did. - I used to transcribe legal.

[ In Reply To ..]
I was paid per hour as I was the receptionist as well. However, the documents were spaced exactly how you state and were pages and pages long sometimes.

I think 5 cpl is worth a try for sure.

General transcription - notlegalbut

[ In Reply To ..]
I was doing general transcription for awhile. Interesting work. This doesn't pertain directly to your legal work, just thought I would share how I was being compensated. It was .007 cents per 1000 bytes, and bytes could be approximated by looking in Word at characters with spaces.

I didn't really know if this was decent or not until I broke it down with how long a document would take to transcribe which was a long time! I had NO idea (not sure why not)how much more keyboarding it entails that typical medical reports!! I guess it's all relative, but it really is different.

Anyhow, for anyone out there considering this angle, just thought I'd share.

Definitely take it - Hiddden benefits

[ In Reply To ..]
The pay rate is not bad, particularly since it is nonmedical material. You won't have to chase after drug, instrument, and doctor names. I think the quality of the recording may be better, since they will have made an effort to get a good recording rather than dictating on a cell phone while driving on the freeway and eating a sandwich. You also won't have to deal with ESL doctors mumbling and slurring.

The main reason you should take this, though, is the experience. It can be difficult to break into legal transcription without experience. With this, you may be able to get other jobs in legal offices, see if paralegal work appeals to you, find out how to get into it gradually, get some references from "real person" employers rather than MTSOs, and who knows what else.

Your MT experience can be used as an asset here. It will be an added plus that might enable you to move into medical legal transcription.

A gross line means anything on a line is counted as a line. Since this will be question and answer material, I think there will be a lot of short answer lines and one-word lines. In this case, verbatim means that you will represent the speech exactly as it is spoken, bad grammar and all. You will transcribe everything . . . there will not be any editing of the sort you now do, no erasing lines and paragraphs because some doctor changed his mind, no editing out inappropriate sounds like cursing or inflammatory statements, and no need for you to correct dictation errors like wrong genders or body parts. No abandoned jobs that you don't get paid for. It is unlikely that you will lose money waiting for doctors to flap through charts, chat on the phone, or take naps. And you won't have to listen to verbal abuse directed at you or to doctors using the toilet.

Looks like a good deal to me. I would take it.

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