Making Transcripts of Client and Witness Interviews
When putting together mediation packages, I had been using the following method for obtaining transcripts of witness statements:
1. Have Investigator Call Witness and Create a Recorded Statement in Digital Format.
2. Investigator sends Digital Statement to My Office using www.YouSendIt.com.
3. Transcribe Digital Statement by sending it to wwww.Speak-Write.com
Today, I had an even better idea.
1. Call the witness on the phone.
2. Using conference calling, add www.Speak-Write.com as a "third" caller.
What does this do?
You question the witness and at the end of the call hang up. Between 15-30 minutes later, you'll have a transcript of the interview e-mailed to you along with a digital recording of the conversation. You get the automatic recording and the transcript in one fell swoop.
By setting up a conference call with Speak-Write, you eliminate the need to for having the equipment to digitally record the conversation yourself and you eliminate the need to hiring your investigator to take the statement. You also eliminate the cost of the investigator.
You can also use this to take a recorded statement from your client. You can put the phone on speaker and call Speak-Write. You will get a transcribed copy of the interview and also the digital recording in the client's own voice.
Once you have the digital recording, you can use clips of that in your mediation package, to refresh the witness's memory or other uses. Neat stuff.
Fascinating. Thanks for the post. As for transcribing conversations with client, any thoughts on whether this implicates atty-client privilege?
Thanks for the ideas and information.
Sincerely,
Glen R. Graham, Attorney at Law
