Legal professionals deal with recordings constantly: depositions, client interviews, hearings, witness statements, and more. Turning those recordings into usable transcripts has traditionally meant waiting days for a transcription service or spending hours doing it manually. TranscribeLegal is built to change that workflow.
What TranscribeLegal Actually Does
TranscribeLegal is an AI-powered transcription platform designed specifically for legal and clinical professionals. Upload an audio or video file, and the platform produces a speaker-identified, timestamped first-pass draft transcript. From there, you review, edit, and — when appropriate — certify and export.
Here is a closer look at the core capabilities:
Speaker Identification and Labeling
The platform automatically identifies and labels up to 36 speakers in a single recording. Once the draft is generated, you can rename each speaker label to a real name or role — for example, changing "Speaker 1" to "Examining Attorney" or "Deponent: Jane Smith." This makes the transcript immediately readable and professionally formatted without manual reformatting.
Clickable Timestamps
Every line of the transcript is linked to the exact moment in the recording. Click a timestamp and the audio or video jumps to that point. This is particularly useful when you need to verify a specific answer, check tone or context, or locate a passage quickly during preparation.
Full-Text Search
TranscribeLegal provides full-text search across your transcripts with highlighted results and surrounding context. Instead of reading through an entire deposition to find a reference to a key term, you can search and navigate directly to every instance.
80+ Language Support
The platform supports more than 80 languages with automatic language detection. Transcription is produced in the source language of the recording. (Note: TranscribeLegal does not translate transcripts into other languages — it transcribes in the language spoken.)
FTR Courtroom Recording Files
For court reporters and agencies working with courtroom recordings, TranscribeLegal reads FTR (.trm) multi-channel files and transcribes each microphone channel separately. This preserves the channel structure of the original recording. Keep in mind that if multiple people share a single microphone channel, the platform cannot distinguish between them within that channel.
Supported File Formats
Audio: MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA Video: MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WMV, WebM
Export Options
Once your transcript is reviewed and edited, you can export in several formats:
- Q&A RTF — formatted for Microsoft Word, ideal for deposition transcripts
- Plain text / ASCII — clean, portable text
- SRT / VTT subtitles — for video captioning
- Certified PDF — you can certify and export a signed PDF that includes a certification statement and chain of custody, signed by the human professional
Important: TranscribeLegal produces a first-pass draft. The platform does not itself certify transcripts. Certification is performed by the qualified human professional — the court reporter, transcriber, or attorney — who reviews the draft and applies their own certification.
HIPAA Compliance and Security
TranscribeLegal is HIPAA compliant. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. A Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is available on the Advanced plan. This makes the platform suitable for clinical use cases including therapy notes, clinical dictation, supervision recordings, and telehealth sessions, in addition to legal matters.
Pricing
TranscribeLegal offers straightforward pricing:
- Pay-as-you-go: $0.25 per minute
- Monthly subscription plans: starting at $49/month
- Free trial: 30 free minutes, no credit card required
Court reporters, transcribers, and agencies receive 30% more minutes on every plan.
API access is available on the Advanced plan for firms or organizations that want to integrate transcription into existing workflows.
How Firms Typically Handle Transcription Costs
Transcription is generally treated as a per-matter litigation expense. Firms may pass the actual cost — what they pay TranscribeLegal — through to the client as a disbursement, with appropriate disclosure and client consent, consistent with their jurisdiction's billing rules. Consult your jurisdiction's professional conduct rules and your firm's billing policies for guidance on how to handle this in practice.
A Hypothetical Example (Illustrative Only)
The following is a hypothetical scenario for illustration purposes only and does not represent any actual client or matter.
Imagine a litigation associate who has a four-hour recorded deposition to work with before a filing deadline. Rather than waiting for an outside service, she uploads the MP4 file to TranscribeLegal. Within a short time, she has a speaker-labeled, timestamped draft. She uses full-text search to locate every reference to a key contract date, clicks the timestamps to verify the deponent's exact words in context, and exports a Q&A RTF to finalize in Word. The draft still requires her careful review and editing — but the starting point is already structured and navigable.
Getting Started
TranscribeLegal offers 30 free minutes with no credit card required. You can upload a recording, see the speaker-identified draft, and evaluate whether the workflow fits your practice — before committing to any plan.
Visit transcribelegal.ai to start your free trial.