Professional transcription increases accuracy and reduces stress

While it is reasonable to require legal staff to type depositions and summaries, hearing reports, litigation reports, legal briefs, recorded statements, interviews and caption reports, it may not be in the firm’s best interest for them to do so.

Transcription professionals minimize error and maximize profitability by accurately transcribing dictated information in a timely manner – often within 24 hours – thus freeing the legal professionals to focus on activities that improve client relationships and generate more billable hours.

Partnering with and trusting Brown & Meyers to type up and digitize this sensitive and important information is a smart business decision.

Along with the everyday work product of attorneys, we have also transcribed closed court hearings, FBI wiretaps, and grand jury testimony.

Transcriptionists are carefully selected and trained in Attorney/Client Privilege

As a SSAE 16-certified company, Brown & Meyers ensures the integrity of our workforce by requiring employees and independent contractors to undergo background checks before being hired. Additionally, we require employees and independent contractors, many of whom are out-of-state, which is an additional safeguard for confidentiality, to sign confidentiality agreements as a condition of employment. Finally, after a thorough hiring process, we train all of our employees to understand the Attorney/Client Privilege and to maintain confidentiality.

Brown & Meyers’ services include:

• Dictation by phone, digital recorder, smart phone or tablet
• Personal secure online web portal
• Secure document delivery
• Customized document style templates
• Online access to your files available 24/7

Secure and Encrypted File Management

Brown & Meyers’ secure and encrypted audio file management system takes your recordings and turns them into a typed document. We process hundreds of legal reports weekly and ease the typing burden on the administrative and paralegal staff of many law firms. Here’s what one client had to say about Brown & Meyers’ transcription service:

“We have utilized Brown & Meyers in the past for transcription of Workers’

Compensation hearings and have been completely satisfied with the quality and turnaround time. We have always experienced the utmost in personal service from Brown & Meyers and will continue to use them in the future.”

– Rebecca Durgin, Administrative Staff Lead, Verrill Dana, Portland, ME

For more information about our legal transcription services, contact Brown & Meyers at 1-800-785-7505 or e-mail us at Info@BrownMeyers.com.

The post Stop the Pain! There’s a Better Way to Transcribe Legal Recordings appeared first on Brown & Meyers, Inc..

A really crucial piece of the digital imaging puzzle is how you want to be able to search for these documents once they are saved.  The process of titling your saved files is known as indexing.  Think of it like saving a word document and giving that word document a name that is relevant to the content, but something easy enough to search for.  How does it work?  When you scan images, you typically scan a bundle of a time.  So if you have 1500 images that need to be scanned, but they’re all different papers that need to be indexed and stored separately, that is no problem.  As soon as a scanning company is done scanning, they typically go through what they call a quality control process.  It is here that your images are ensured to be PERFECT, and then named to your specifications.

Here are some examples of what you’d get scanned, and how you might want to request they be indexed by:

1)  Medical Records: Scanning medical records is a big undertaking.  When records are in paper form, you’re at the mercy of the person who does the file backs!  You look for them alphabetically and hope that they are there, and in the right order.  When you scan them, however, you have a couple choices on how you want to be able to search for them.  Maybe last name/first name works well for you.  What if you have two patients with the name Chris Smith?  That is when you might want to consider adding a search field for D.O.B.  In the very rare instance that two patients were born on the same exact day and have the same name, you will need another back up.  That is when something like a medical record number comes in handy.  If you get in the habit of always searching by a medical record number, you will find the patient that belongs to that unique number.

2)  Legal Documents:  If you have a bunch of closed cases that you were looking to have archived, you know that you may need to access them at some point.  How do you have those rows of documents stored right now? By case number? By defendant vs plaintiff?  Or maybe you just have them stacked in boxes in a basement – trust me, I’ve seen it!  Think about how you want them organized when you get a few minutes, I bet you’ll find that your ideal way of organization is very feasible!

3) Old Invoices:   Not everyone has quickbooks, or a way of digitally documenting what is owed to them, and what they owe people.  You are legally required to keep your invoices, and if you create them in a word based program, then you likely print and store them away in a filing cabinet.  This is very risky!  Scan them and have them indexed by invoice number, or client name.

4)  Books:  Did you know that you can have your books scanned, without having them destroyed?  You can!  As long as you are the rightful owner, of course.  Books can be scanned and indexed however you want.  Title, Volume #, Title Volume & Author – go crazy!

If there are paper records, they can be scanned.  Bills, vet receipts, recipes, construction documentation – think outside the box.  Don’t be a slave to paper because you don’t think there is an easier way to store it – keeping them electronically may actually streamline your productivity in ways you never thought possible.

The post Indexing Documents – Don’t Be Afraid To Be Organized! appeared first on Brown & Meyers, Inc..

When I have an initial consultation with clients, I ask them if they’d like their documents searchable and most of them don’t even know that’s an option – but they jump on the chance!!  Having your documents go from paper to electronic CAN be made easier with a few extra steps on the company’s end.

Making documents searchable is done through a process called Optical Character Recognition, or OCR.  It is a software program that takes your documents from hard copy text, and converts them into a word document onto your computer, with some programs producing at a rate of 99% accuracy!  It does this through an optical scanner that will scan the text on the page, and then creates what is called a bitmap.  A bitmap is the series of dots that get created as a result of the scanner reading the font.  Take note that I’ve said font!

So, why would you need this in your life?  A couple of good examples for both business owners and regular consumers:

Are you a business owner with hundreds or thousands of invoices kicking around your office?  Scan them with OCR software and have them converted to PDFs!  John Smith calls asking about his bill – do a simple search for “Smith” and you’re presented with a said invoice!

Did you find an old book someone else typed but made handwritten corrections to?  That can be scanned and converted to a regular word document.  You’re able to edit, add, or delete anything you want to, and you’re saving yourself a lot of typing!

The pros greatly outweigh the cons, in my opinion.  You’re getting papers out of your office and onto your computer.  They’re 100% easier to find this way than they are in a box in your basement or storage facility, and nothing is ever “lost” – you have a permanent back up!

The only thing that would deter me from buying it if I didn’t already have every day access to it would be the price of the software.  It is expensive if your plan is to do one or two things with it. Most scanning companies offer OCR scanning for a nominal fee.  It does take a little longer to scan things with OCR software because of the process it has to go through recognizing characters.

I encourage you to look at your office or home and come up with a few ways that OCR scanning would help your daily activities.

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