The Outsourced Transcription Provider: A Cost Saving Addition to Your Legal Practice

The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, hit some law firms hard. As a result, this has made firms re-evaluate disaster recovery and business continuity planning.

Now due to the war in Ukraine and the ripple effects from it, firms are now looking at what efficiencies can be made to reduce costs for their practice and how to improve income generation from its fee earners. Interestingly, Macintyre Hudson’s Legal Benchmarking Report for 2022 stated that removing administrative tasks from fee earners (such as typing) will help increase income generation

So how can outsourcing your typing needs help reduce costs, improve income generation and add a business continuity resource?

A Quick Win

Outsourcing will always be cheaper than a fee earner typing their own documents. This is due to a fee earner’s charge out rate being higher than an outsourced typist (at circa £19.50 p/h).

Did you know that a Grade A Solicitor (at £512 p/h) who spends two hours typing their own bespoke correspondence/documents could lose their legal practice up to £721.20 in chargeable timei. A Grade D lawyer (at £186 p/h) could lose their firm up to £232.20 i The same applies to typing bespoke correspondence etc via a case management system. Why is that?

Dictation versus Typing

The simple fact is we can all speak considerably faster than we can type, as demonstrated by the statistics below: “The average person types between 38 and 40 words per minute” ii; and A “good rate of speech ranges between 140 - 160 words per minute” iii Therefore, it is four times more cost-efficient to dictate a document or email, rather than type it yourself. This is without considering any additional time a fee earner would need to edit or proofread, once the typing was done.

Swapping typing for dictation allows fee earners additional time to concentrate on what they do best; practice law and thereby income generate. Additionally, this reclaimed time will enable fee earners to deal with other important tasks, such as WIP and releasing valuable lock up, which overall will provide a better cash flow opportunity for the practice.

Other Benefits & Savings

Outsourcing your typing needs is considerably cheaper than direct employment (as your firm is not paying for hidden employment costs such as NI contributions, pension contributions, non-productive time, leave, sickness, desk space etc). Outsourced transcription firms help enable law firms to work remotely, dictate on the go or to work from home without additional software costs or licences to the practice. They can also be used in times of high workload on a “as needed basis” or as a business continuity solution that enables law firms to access support when they need it, that expands (or contracts) with their firm’s specific needs, without any of the problems that direct employment would cause.

Testing the Theory

Some of the more established transcription companies have dictation apps for iOS, iPadOS and Android that allow you to dictate direct from your mobile phone or tablet like you would via a traditional Dictaphone. This allows companies to trial the provider without purchasing equipment or software licences. Some offer a number of free minutes of dictation, making it even easier to evaluate a provider. So why not take five minutes of your time today to investigate?

Based upon court approved rates for London. Typing costs deducted using OutSec’s standard rate.

ii “https://www.livechatinc.com/ typing-speed-test/#/ iii “https://clearly-speaking.com/ what-is-the-idealrate-of-speech/