How does legal dictation work between a lawyer and an assistant?

In this workflow the lawyer speaks and someone else types. The lawyer records a message, the recording goes to an assistant or a transcription service, and a typed draft comes back for review. The lawyer's job shifts from typing to checking. Our guide to legal dictation software compares this route with live dictation, and this page covers how the handoff works in practice.

The lawyer records, and a platform or server moves the file

The recording can start on a handheld recorder, a phone or a desktop app. Legal Futures describes how the file moves: recordings can be encrypted in real time, then uploaded to a cloud platform or routed by local network, FTP server or email for transcription ¹. The route matters for confidentiality, because each step is a place where the audio is stored or sent.

A dedicated platform does more than move files. It keeps a queue of jobs, so the typist knows which recording to take next and the firm can see where each job stands. A shared folder moves files, but it does not manage the work. The digital dictation entry explains the vocabulary.

The typist turns the recording into a draft

The typist's work is listening and typing. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics describes medical transcriptionists as people who listen to the recorded dictation of physicians and transcribe it into reports ². That is a medical job, but the task is the same one a legal typist does with a recording. O*NET defines the work of typists in the same terms: typing letters, reports, forms or other material from a rough draft, corrected copy, or voice recording ³.

Typists can work remotely. BLS says medical transcriptionists may work from home, receiving dictation and submitting drafts electronically ⁴. A law firm can set the same arrangement, but the remote typist then holds client audio outside the office, and the firm's policy must cover that.

Some typing now starts with software. BLS lists reviewing and editing drafts prepared by speech recognition software among the usual duties of medical transcriptionists ⁵. A firm that adds recognition before the typist can cut the typing time, but the typist's review is still needed.

The lawyer proofreads the draft against the recording

The review step catches errors that the typist and the software miss. A clinical study of dictated notes found that 96.3 percent of the speech recognition drafts contained at least one error, against 58.1 percent after a transcriptionist edited them and 42.4 percent of the signed notes ⁶. The study covered medical notes, not legal drafts, but it illustrates the pattern. A draft is not a finished document until a person has checked it.

For a legal draft, check three things. Check every name, date and amount against the recording. Check each citation against its source. Check that the draft says what was said, not what the typist assumed. Record who proofread the draft and when, so the firm can show that a person checked it.

Confidentiality covers the typist and the platform

A typist is a third party to the lawyer-client relationship in the same way a vendor is, and the audio passes through their hands. Cornell's legal encyclopedia says that if a third party is present during a privileged communication, confidentiality may be compromised unless the third party is essential to the attorney-client relationship ⁷. An in-house assistant is usually part of the firm's operation. An outside service should have a written confidentiality agreement and a clear limit on who may hear the recording.

Set the rules before the first recording. Decide which device the lawyer uses, which platform stores the file, who may access the queue, how long the audio is kept, and whether the typist may copy it. Write these down in the firm's policy, and name the vendor and the setting for each tool.

Who the workflow suits

Recorded dictation suits long letters, pleadings and files that support staff finish. It is slower than live recognition for a memo you need in an hour, because the typist must finish first. The question on whether lawyers still dictate covers both routes and what the evidence can and cannot show about them. For the software side, see what Dragon Legal is and whether it is still sold, and for citations in a dictated draft, see how to dictate legal citations.

For the typist's career and formats, see legal transcription.