Thursday's dictation, still waiting on Monday
A partner dictates twelve letters on Thursday afternoon, using BigHand or the recorder app on their phone. Their secretary is off on Friday. On Monday the queue has forty items across three fee earners, and each one needs typing, putting on the right letterhead, filling in the client's address and reference, and adding the enclosures the fee earner mentioned in passing.
Some of those letters were promised to clients by the end of last week.
Why the typing queue grows
Typing from audio is slow, careful work, and it is only part of the job. The secretary also has to find the matter, pull the right template, look up addresses and references, and format the letter to house style. Those steps take as long as the typing on short letters.
Queues are usually tied to individuals. When one secretary is away or overloaded, work does not move easily to someone with capacity, and the fee earner often does not know their dictation is sitting untouched.
| Part of the job | Why it is slow |
|---|---|
| Typing the audio | Legal terms, names and spellings need care |
| Finding the matter and template | Looked up for every item |
| Addresses and references | Copied from the practice management system |
| Enclosures and formatting | Mentioned verbally, added by hand |
| Queue management | Tied to one secretary, invisible to others |
What the backlog costs
Letters go out late, clients wait, and deadlines get tight. Fee earners start typing their own letters to get round the queue, which is an expensive use of their time. Secretaries spend the day on the most mechanical part of their role and have less time for the client contact and file management they are good at.
When a letter goes out days after the dictation, the fee earner also has to reread the file to check it still makes sense.
How we build a transcription draft step
- Pick up the dictation: new dictations are taken from your dictation system or a folder, with the matter number and letter type the fee earner tagged.
- Transcribe: speech-to-text produces a draft, using a vocabulary list of your clients, other parties and common legal terms to improve names and spellings. Low-confidence words are highlighted.
- Fill the template: the draft is placed on the right letter template, with the addressee, references and matter details pulled from your practice management system.
- Spoken instructions: phrases like 'new paragraph', 'enclose the draft lease' or 'copy to the client' are turned into formatting and an enclosures list for checking.
- Secretary review: the secretary listens where words are highlighted, corrects, formats and checks the enclosures. They are editing, not typing.
- Shared queue: the queue shows every waiting dictation by age and fee earner, so work can be moved between secretaries, and fee earners can see where theirs is.
Every letter still goes to the fee earner to approve before it is sent.
What the secretary's day looks like
Each dictation arrives as a formatted draft on the right template, and the secretary's job becomes checking and finishing. Short letters that took a while now take much less. The queue is visible to the whole team, so backlogs are shared before they build up. Fee earners can see their dictation's status without asking.
Secretaries get time back for the parts of the role that need a person.
Is your typing queue like this?
- Dictation regularly waits more than a day to be typed.
- Every letter needs its template, address and references added by hand.
- Queues are tied to individual secretaries.
- Fee earners type their own letters to avoid the wait.
- Nobody can see the whole firm's dictation backlog.