Jo Bee Company

In the legal profession, planning for an appeal often begins as early as rafting the complaint or answer to the initial suit, and sometimes even before that. Clients frequently call upon a firm to assist their trial counsel in specific areas, including the initial formulation of a case, briefing and arguing motions, developing legal theories and trial strategy, preparing trial briefs and jury instructions, and briefing and arguing post-trial motions in anticipation of an appeal. Because time is always of the essence in the judicial system, the ability to quickly move case information into a digital workflow is critical to maximizing the analysis time for each client.

Surprisingly, in this predominantly electronic business age, a majority of attorneys and judges are still behind the information technology curve. These legal professionals are drowning in a sea of tedious and costly manual processes for creating, collecting and organizing case data. Law offices large and small, as well as local and federal courts, are looking for affordable tools that can help them effectively reduce their operating costs and increase productivity.
Over the last decade, legal organizations have begun to reap the benefits of using computerized practice management systems to eliminate their reliance on paper. The only drawback was that records for these systems needed to be created manually. That problem was solved by outsourcing the record creation to transcriptionists. Unfortunately transcription is a slow and costly process that negated any savings of implementing an electronic practice management system. Last year legal organizations spent over $5 billion on manual transcription services. On average, a single attorney or judge spends upwards of $20,000 per year to digitize case information.

Attorney Joseph Field’s practice was no exception. Ten years ago he took a hard look at what he was spending and found that the rapidly rising administrative costs were eating away a bigger and bigger chunk of his firm’s profits. Like most practices, he relied on an expensive paralegal support staff to perform transcription tasks. Worse yet, the work kept piling up and his secretary never seemed to make significant progress reducing the backlog. One day he came to the realization that things were not going to get any better unless he drastically changed the way hey worked. He came cross a study that verified the benefits of using modern speech recognition software and became intrigued at the idea of talking to his computer to perform work three times faster than typing by hand. Through his research,
he discovered that thousands of legal professionals already successfully used speech recognition to document information for legal proceedings and eliminate traditional transcription.
According to Fields, “I immediately recognized that a small law office like mine could benefit greatly from using voice recognition instead of hiring ther transcriptionists to process dictations. I looked at Dragon naturally Speaking and found the voice recognition to be very accurate. I bought the software without even looking  at any alternatives.”

Dragon NaturallySpeaking enables legal professionals to create electronic documents of all types by voice at speeds of up to 160 words per minute with accuracy rates as high as 99%. It comes with a pre-configured legal vocabulary containing nearly 30,000 legal terms, works with most practice management systems and allows the creation of simple commands to automate complex, multi-step tasks. Fields knew Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal would provide an affordable way to automate the information collection process at his practice while significantly reducing administrative overhead and increasing the firm’s productivity. That was ten years ago. Today Fields works with the software on a daily basis. “I have used this product since 1995.

Now almost all of my written legal work is accomplished through voice dictation instead of typing. I use speech recognition 100% of the time to create documents. Dragon NaturallySpeaking works in conjunction with my other office applications like Corel WordPerfect, PC Law accounting software, and even AOL. It is highly accurate. Over the years I have saved is in excess of $100,000 by replacing transcription with Dragon Naturally Speaking! It is a great product. It has saved me an incalculable amount of  time and I plan to continue using it.”

By 2007 the old-style recorders were fast becoming obsolete, with models
being discontinued and replacement parts impossible to find. This prompted Sherif Kelly Lake to direct administrative staf to investigate alternatives, primarily a modern digital system. Ultimately, the department selected the Philips Digital Pocket Memo 9600 – and was amazed at the extensive functionality that was suddenly at its fngertips.

Because files were uploaded electronically to the department’s server, deputies and investigators had immediate access to vital information instead of having to wait for transcription. Administrative staff found it easy to route work and manage time-sensitive material because all Transcriptionists had access to pending work and could easily identify priority fles. And the sound quality of the Philips digital dictation system was much superior to the analog units – a beneft to both deputies and transcriptionists.

The Challenge
The Carlton County Sherif’s Ofce serves more than 30,000 people in a region 20 miles west of Duluth, MN. The mostly rural county employs 20 sworn deputies, in addition to Sherif Lake. Five additional staf members provide administrative support at the jail facility and dispatch communication center.
As is typical with most law enforcement agencies, Carlton County requires deputies to dictate call reports daily. Deputies also record witness interviews, interactions with suspects and other feld activities. Carlton County’s legacy dictation system was heavily used and had provided staf good functionality for many years. When searching for a replacement,
administrators were committed to fnding a solution that retained the features and reliability users found most valuable – while enhancing efciency, productivity and ease of use.

Although Carlton County deputies complete their dictation in the office whenever possible, the nature of their job often requires recording in the feld as well. “A lot of time deputies are not in an optimal setting when recording andwe get a lot of background noise,” says Jane M. Willie, office and system administrator for the department. “When we looked for a new
system, we knew we needed technology thatofered improved sound quality.” Durability was also vital. “When the deputies are out in the feld, they keep the recorders in their pocket everywhere they go,” she says. “The units are always getting dropped or banged around – we use them pretty hard.”
Carlton County was counting on digital dictation to help eliminate the frustrations inherent to micro cassette tapes.

The Solution
As Carlton County began searching for a replacement dictation system, it called upon Dan Meyer, Regional Manager at Chader Voice Technology (http://www.chader.com) in Waite Park, MN, which supplies the sheriff’s
department with business technology. Meyer presented the department with different options – including the Olympus DS-4000 - and conducted product demonstrations. In the end, Carlton County determined the Philips Digital Pocket Memo 9600 best suited its needs.

”We chose Philips because of its ease of use,” says Willie. “We liked the way the software looked on the screen for the transcriptionist and the recorder was similar to what we had been used to.

The design was good and so was the sound quality.” Carlton County purchased 20 of the units for daily use and back-up, as well as the transcription software for the administrative staff.

Carlton County converted to the Philips 9600s in the fall of 2007. In most cases, the transition was easy, particularly among young deputies who are more familiar with digital technology. The intuitive design of the Philips recorder, however, streamlined acceptance for veteran deputies as well. The deputies now dictate files both from the feld and the ofce, assigning case
references and priority status to each individual file. They then simply place the recorder onto a docking station – which also serves as a charger – at their PCs and upload the fles through the department’s network. administrative staff is automatically notifed when new dictation is ready for transcription so they can assess priorities and route work as needed.

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The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), one of the most influential German newspapers, was already hailing the device as “the new benchmark in dictation devices”. While several international media talked about how the Digital Pocket Memo (DPM) was bringing a “truck load of small innovations together” (PC Authority), the FAZ tested the new Philips device with external voice recognition software and compared it with hardware from two other manufacturers. The outcome of the test was clear: according to the FAZ, the DPM is “the first and only mobile dictation device highly recommendable” for use with the voice recognition software being tested (FAZ article).

The Philips DPM 9600 can be used like a USB microphone, either connected to the PC during recording or where the dictation files are transmitted to the computer after the recording has been finished. In its February article, the FAZ stressed that while a wired USB headset was usually the first choice for professional dictation with speech recognition; the DPM 9600 provided “the same quality as a headset” due to the new DSS Pro format. In March, the UK magazine Legal Technology Insider informed its readers that “DSS-Pro now has 16 Hz sampling, which makes it better for use in speech recognition applications”.

Remarkable sound quality
US-based Network World highlighted that the digital sound quality on playback was “remarkably clear” and called the DPM 9600 “the perfect tool for those with a lot to say, and the need to record it”. A review of the Australian Internet platform Good Gear Guide showed that noise reduction worked well and at a medium sensitivity level the device “adequately picked up conversation from halfway across a medium sized room”. Focusing on the many features of the device, including keyword tags, voice activation and file encryption, the Australian reviewers declared themselves “thoroughly satisfied with the Pocket Memo’s recording capabilities.”

Professional features
In another review from “down under”, the national daily newspaper The Australian noted that the speech reproduction of the device was “spot-on” and that most operations could be performed without a PC. The pan Asian Australasian Legal Business mentioned the unique LAN docking station, representing “an entirely new concept in PC-free file transfer”. The Australian also stressed the availability of transcription kits, “adding to the attraction of the unit” and Legal Technology Insider emphasized that the DPM featured “one of the largest backlit LCD screens we’ve seen on a device this size” as well as a robust metal case and a more intuitive on-screen menu. The Austria-based magazine Computer Welt observed that Philips had received a design award for its latest dictation device.

A truckload of innovations
Computer Welt also wrote that Philips invested two years in research and development of the new series, twice the usual time. The positive reviews in print media and Internet platforms as well as the enthusiastic reactions of customers in many countries clearly indicate that this investment is paying off. In one of the German articles, the DPM was hailed as “a fantastic device for the professional user who dictates every day” and The Australian declared the DPM to be “the right sort of choice for busy professionals who need to transcribe scads of dictation”. The Australian print magazine PC Authority even noted that the Digital Pocket Memo brought “a truck load of small innovations together, turning a seemingly benign tool into an absolute essential.”