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Legal Transcription - transition into something different - No More MT

Posted: Jan 23, 2013

I have all these years of MT experience, but ready to transition into something different, specifically, legal transcribing. Most places (usually law firms) prefer that one have some experience either with legal transcription oreither be a paralegal or law student intern. Is there a way I can somehow seamlessly transition into legal transcribing without all of that?

Why would you want a pay decrease? - me

[ In Reply To ..]
Legal transcription pays even less than medical transcription by far, so why would you want to transition? General transcription pays even more than this.... The only way you can make money doing legal typing is to do stenography, which is a 2-year course that requires 200 words per minute, software, scoping equipment, etc. Also factor in they do not pay for inserted templates, etc., and this is straight typing with no margin for error.

sm - No More MT

[ In Reply To ..]
OHHHHH........I was not aware that one made less doing legal transcription. No clue. Thank you for the information.

I would research that... - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I didn't find the poster particularly accurate. One can always use auto text or auto correct for standard salutations, date fields, frequent addresses and remarks; you can shortcut long words like "litigation" to three keystrokes; you can always make your own "templates".

Legal transcription - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I will state it again. In legal transcription, they have a lot of "templates" and "normals" you pull up to insert in the document, which you are not paid for. They are even cheaper than doctors, if that is possible. Anything they can possibly count as a "normal," they will and actually have field markers and such in the documents. However, yes, please feel free to check it out yourself. I do not even accept these types of clients anymore. You are usually not even paid for headers/footers or anything but the actual characters you type and have software that counts as such.

Not true! It probably depends on the company. - I have a friend doing legal, and

[ In Reply To ..]
she makes MORE than I do at medical. I agree with another poster here. The OP should research this first.

There is so much more to legal than just typing - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Its really no different than MT. You need an education in more than just legal terminology to do it. There are many different types of law, too. Some far more complex than others. Court documents (depos, briefs, motions, Pleadings, Answers, etc) have to be written and formatted exactly to court standards. There are some companies out there who do fairly simple legal transcription, letters, memos, etc., but you will earn less than MT - they pay 0.005 cents a WORD no spaces, which equates to less than what you're probably making now.

I agree, a friend of mine is making almost double my pay - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
My friend called to see about getting into MT and when I told her the pay she couldn't believe it. She is making almost double my pay, and I average 200+ LPH straight typing and 330 LPH VR so am not at the bottom tier (I have 20 years' experience and barely scraping by). It could depend on the area you live or who you are working for, but definitely check out the pay and opportunities in your area!

Have you thought of depositions or law enforcement? - Elizabeth

[ In Reply To ..]
Most legal transcriptionist need to be familiar with legal terminology, but I've found depositions less "legally" - they're basically like a one-on-one interview. Same with law enforcement transcription, a lot of it is witness interviews, internal investigation interviews, etc. that is basically just two people talking.

I also agree it depends on the company but in general legal pays more, which is due in part to many of the courts and law enforcement agencies insisting that only US transcriptionists type the documents - which has kept foreign competitors out and pay rates higher. Of course, that's if you go through the agencies or court system, not sure about if you just work for a law office directly.

Well, it is all relative... sm - me

[ In Reply To ..]
I am making well over $7,000 per month on a slow month (unsure of line count, as most pay is per report or page count) and am not at all a fast typist. If I were to switch to legal transcription, I would not make much at all, especially because of my injuries (cervical radiculopathy affecting both hands). Pay can also differ from office to office or state to state, but where I am located, pay is as stated in previous posts, less than medical transcription. I know a lot of people in the profession.... Court reporters are well paid but not transcriptionists or legal secretaries.

I would much rather transcribe medical than legal or even focus groups.

I worked in a law firm for over 25 years - Maggie May

[ In Reply To ..]
and also did some legal transcription online. There are many different ways LTs get paid. From what I have seen, with all the downhill changes MT has made, legal usually pays more. But there is a lot of terminology AND a lot of rules for legal transcription and most places won't consider someone without a legal background. There is definitely no way to "seamlessly transition" any more than there would be for a legal transcriptionist to suddenly do MT.

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