Legal Transcription FAQs

No. Legal transcription produces court transcripts of depositions, hearings and other legal proceedings, with legal formatting such as Q&A, bylines and, for Ready to Certify, cover and certification pages. It’s priced per page and ordered from a separate legal transcription account.

Rev’s standard transcription is priced per minute, doesn’t include legal formatting, and is ordered from a regular Rev account. To order a regular transcript of an interview, meeting or other recording, see Placing An Order.

Yes. Legal transcripts are ordered from a Rev account set up for legal transcription, and you can’t add legal transcription to an existing standard Rev account. To create one, see Getting Started with Rev Legal for Court Transcripts.

In your legal transcription account:

1. Click Order Legal Transcript.
2. Upload the recording of the proceeding, plus any backup audio, then click Continue.
3. Choose the proceeding type, and add a reference number if you like.
4. Add your supporting documents, such as the notice, exhibit list or appearance sheet.
5. Choose your service level and delivery date, then review your order and submit payment.

For full steps, see Uploading Files & Ordering Court Transcripts with Rev Legal.

You can order legal transcripts for depositions, hearings, statements on the record (SORs), examinations under oath (EUOs) and trials. For anything else, choose Other.

Ready to Certify uses Rev’s standard templates for each jurisdiction. Ready to Certify Premium, available on Enterprise/Unlimited accounts, can use custom templates that match your organization’s formats. To set it up, Contact Sales.

No. Each order produces one legal transcript, so place a separate order for each proceeding. If one proceeding was recorded in several files, you can upload them together in one order and Rev combines them into one transcript.

• Instant Rough Draft: about 30 minutes
• Human Rough Draft: 3 business days
• Ready to Certify and Ready to Certify Premium: 5 business days

• Faster delivery: For Human Rough Draft and Ready to Certify, you can choose an earlier delivery date at checkout, as early as the same day, for an extra fee. Transcripts are delivered by 11:59 p.m. ET on the date you choose. Ready to Certify orders due in 3 days or less are delivered by 5 p.m. ET. Accounts with a contract may have custom turnaround.

Rev offers four levels of legal transcript:

Instant Rough Draft

• Best for a draft in minutes
• AI-generated, with Q&A formatting and bylines
• Opens in Rev’s editor so you can make your own edits

Human Rough Draft

• Best for a fast, accurate draft
• AI transcript reviewed by trained legal transcriptionists, for 99% accuracy
• Includes Q&A formatting, consistent speaker labels and bylines, and opens in Rev’s editor

Ready to Certify

• Best for a transcript that’s formatted and ready for certification
• 99.7% accuracy after three rounds of human review
• Uses Rev’s standard template for your jurisdiction, with cover and certification pages and parentheticals for depositions, hearings, SORs, EUOs and trials

Ready to Certify Premium (Enterprise/Unlimited only)

• Best for highly customized transcripts
• 99.97% accuracy, formatted to your own templates and ready to sign, certify and file
• Rev reviews backup audio to resolve unclear sections

Rev doesn’t certify transcripts. The court reporter reviews, signs and certifies them.

Instant Rough Draft

• Per page: $0.35

Human Rough Draft 

• Per page: $2.25

Ready to Certify

• Per page: $2.50

Ready to Certify Premium (Enterprise/Unlimited only)

• Per page: $3.25

Yes. Volume discounts are available through a contract with Rev. To talk with our team about volume pricing, Contact Sales.

• Instant Rough Draft and Human Rough Draft: Open and edit them in Rev’s editor, then download them as Word (.docx) or ASCII text (.txt) with legal formatting options.
• Ready to Certify and Ready to Certify Premium: Delivered as a finished Word or ASCII file, based on your account’s preferred format. They can’t be opened in Rev’s editor. To change your preferred format, email legalsupport@rev.com.

Need ASCII but received Word? See Convert a Legal Transcript From Word to ASCII Text (.txt).

No. Ready to Certify and Ready to Certify Premium transcripts are prepared for certification, but the court reporter reviews, signs and certifies them.

Rev is SOC 2 Type II compliant and encrypts your files in transit and at rest. Legal accounts can also be set up for HIPAA. HIPAA orders are worked only by transcribers who complete HIPAA certification every year, pass a background check and sign a BAA with Rev. To set up HIPAA for your legal account, contact your account manager or Contact Sales. For more, see Privacy And Security.

Yes. The Legal Transcription API lets you place legal transcript orders and get completed files from your own systems. You’ll need a legal account approved for API access. See Getting Started with Rev’s Legal Transcription API.