Who should you really hire — a legal transcriptionist or a certified court reporter? To help you decide, we have below some of the major differences between these two. Hopefully, by knowing their differences you can be able to pick who will best fit your needs.

Are you one of those who confuse a legal transcriptionist from a court reporter? Well, you are not alone. These two professionals are often confused with each other not only because they both play an important part of any legal proceedings but also because they both transcribe spoken words into written words and produce a hard copy of the transcription afterward. You see, both professionals do almost the same work, but the fact of the matter is that they actually differ from each other in many ways. So, back to our topic today, who should you really hire — a legal transcriptionist or a certified court reporter?

To help you decide, we have below some of the major differences between these two. Hopefully, by knowing their differences you can be able to pick who will best fit your needs.

Duties and responsibilities

The primary differences between the duties and responsibilities of these two professionals can be summarized by identifying how, what, where, and when- what do they transcribe, how they do it, and when and where the transcribing takes place.

The legal transcriptionist provides a hard copy of the document dictated or given to them by an attorney. They typically work from an audio file or a recording of an event (like trials and lectures) and transcribe it into a written document. Depending on the needs and requirements of the client, the transcriptionist can either transcribe the audio file in a word-for-word format or in a slightly edited format.

Since they are working on a recorded audio file, they can be able to rewind the file over and over again if they think they miss something or did not fully understand what the speaker is saying. The legal transcriptionist can likewise play the audio file again to recheck their work.

The court reporters in Atlanta GA, on the other hand, work in a live procedure. They are responsible for recording and transcribing the verbatim words spoken by the attorneys, witnesses, and judges during actual legal depositions and court proceedings. Since the recording is done live, the court reporter must be very efficient, attentive and quick enough to capture everything said inside the courtroom. They also need to keep their record as precise as possible.

Equipment used

There is also a difference about what legal transcriptionists and Georgia court reporters use when doing their job. A legal transcriptionist uses a transcribing machine and headsets when working while a court reporter works with a steno machine.

Cost

Hiring a court reporter often cost more than a legal transcriptionist.

Services offered

Apart from the legal field, the transcriptionists also provide services for different fields like in business, law enforcement, financial, medical, academic, and more. Whilst, court reporters only offer services related to the legal field may it be a court proceeding or a deposition.

Turnaround time

The court reporters in Georgia works in a live legal proceeding. Depending on what is required by the client, they can be able to produce a copy of the record as soon as the proceeding concludes or within a specified period of time.

Expedited services like producing record right after the event ended, on the other end, can’t be provided by a legal transcriptionist. The transcriptionists, however, typically have access to cloud hosting and security features for the documents which allow clients to easily access the document.

Apart from what is stated above, there are other differences between the work and services offered by these two professionals. It is important for employers to consider each of these differences and benefits in order to pick the right professional for their needs.