4 Tips About Work from Home Legal Transcription Jobs

If you’ve thought about remote work but you weren’t sure if you had the skills or education to succeed, work from home legal transcription jobs may be something to consider. With only a GED or two-year degree/certification required and little formal training to obtain work, it’s one job market that’s a superb starting point for many aspiring virtual workers.

Moreover, the industry continues to thrive with the expansion of remote work. With expected job growth as high as 9% over the next 10 years, it’s a career with plenty of potential and options as you excel on the job.

However, you may have some questions about how to get your foot in the door of this exciting industry. Use these tips and information about work from home legal transcription jobs and start your path to a rewarding remote career.

A Beginner’s Guide to Work From Home Legal Transcription Jobs

If you’re new to the world of legal transcription or you’re interested in starting a career, familiarizing yourself with the position is the best way to align yourself with what employers are looking for. Here’s a glance at what a transcriptionist does, the education and skills necessary, and what to expect in terms of salary, hours, and flexibility.

Work From Home Legal Transcription Job Description

The primary responsibility of a legal transcriptionist is to listen to recorded dictations, depositions, testimonies, or attorney’s notes and accurately key in data onto a computer, thereby transcribing voice information to typewritten information. Additionally, legal transcriptionists may be required to format transcribed documents under specific directions from their employer, prepare legal pleadings, track deadlines and monitor schedules, file documents, and provide proofreading services.

Education Required

Formal education as a legal transcriptionist is not required; however, some transcriptionists earn certifications via online training programs or they receive a two-year associate’s degree or a vocational degree in paralegal studies to help familiarize themselves with legal concepts and terminology. Most at-home legal transcriptionists have a high school diploma or GED and have received onsite on-the-job training through work with attorneys’ offices before beginning remote assignments.

If you want an industry-recognized certification to improve your chances or employment, consider gaining your credentials from one of these organizations:

Skills Needed

Like any other type of job, you’ll need to have a specific set of soft skills and other skills that complement your education, training, and experience. Some of these skills are inherent in you as an invididual, but you may need to hone other skill sets to make yourself a more well-rounded and desirable employee. This skills checklist should give you a starting point and let you know what you may unknowingly possess and what you need to work on:

Necessary Equipment

To excel at your position as a legal transcriptionist, you need the right equipment. While some companies may furnish you with equipment, others may require you to purchase it yourself, or they provide a stipend for you to purchase the equipment yourself. Every trade has its tools, and these are typically the ones required to work from home as a legal transcriptionist:

Hours and Salary

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t have specific data for legal transcriptionists, but the organization has data on salaries for court reporters and paralegals/legal assistants. Court reporters earn an average wage of $61,660 per year or $29.64 per hour while paralegals and legal assistants take home $52,920 per year or $25.44 an hour.

Contrastingly, PayScale — a website that allows users to anonymously enter their salary information — reports that legal transcriptionists earn about $34,694 per year or $16.68 hourly.

However, your pay may range somewhere in between these. Salary is often determined by whether you’re an hourly employee or if you’re a per-project freelancer or contractor, as well as your experience and geographic location. Plus, If you’re quick, efficient, and accurate at what you do, your yearly income could go up greatly on per-project payments. The only downside is that you may have to constantly search for new contracts to keep a steady workflow.

Hours can also vary depending on whether you’re part-time, full-time, or an independent contractor. As a general guideline, you can reasonably expect to work somewhere between 20 and 40 hours a week. Whether you have full reign to work as you please or if you have to be available during business hours is at the discretion of your employer.

Tips To Get You Started for Entry-Level Work From Home Legal Transcription Jobs

Now that you have a basic idea of what’s required to become a legal transcriptionist, you’re one step closer to finding a job. But before you start applying, use a few of these tips to solidify your candidacy as a high-quality, highly sought-after professional.

1. Know Your Legal Terms

If you’re an entry-level applicant, understanding legal terms is important knowledge to have. While employers may hire a person with transcribing experience, the added knowledge of legal terminology can vault you to the top of the interview pile. Fortunately, you have several resources to build your legal vocabulary, such as:

You don’t need a J.D. to grasp these terms, and the more you hear them, the more likely you’ll start to memorize them. Keep trying, learn what works for you, and you should get a knack for these terms.

2. Decide Who You Want To Work For

Before you blindly apply for entry-level or other work from home legal transcription jobs, you should decide who you want to work for. However, there’s more to this consideration than merely what company you want to work for. It’s more of a discussion of whether you want to become an employee or an indepedent contractor. Both have their perks.

As an independent contractor, you can negotiate your rates and have increased freedom with your work and flexibility, as you can often set your own hours. An employee, on the other hand, may be required to work office hours and have a more rigid schedule. That said, these jobs may also offer benefits such as insurance, paid time off, or retirement. There’s no right or wrong choice. But you should weigh both employment arrangements to find out which is best for your needs.

3. Master Your Equipment

To become a successful legal transcriptionist you need to master your equipment. If you’re an entry-level candidate who has limited experience with transcription software or a transcriptionist foot pedal, now is the time to start a training regimen.

However, one problematic part of the equation is that there’s no single transcription software that’s generally used across the board. Therefore, you’ll need to keep a keen eye on job descriptions when you apply. If they state which software they use, head over to that company’s website to see if they offer training modules.

4. Get a Handle on the Remote Work Aspect

Remote work isn’t the same as working in the office. It requires several aspects that you wouldn’t find in traditional job settings. If you’ve never worked from home, make sure to master these concepts:

Companies Hiring Now for Work From Home Legal Transcription Jobs

Whether you’re beginning your journey as a legal transcriptionist or you’re a seasoned veteran, dozens of companies are looking to hire people just like you. Check out a few of these companies that are hiring now for work from home legal transcription jobs.

Allegis Transcription Services

Although not geared specifically to legal transcription, Allegis Transcription Services is a leading provider of transcription services for a broad number of companies across industries. The organization works closely with small- and medium-sized businesses to transcribe all types of documents and meetings, giving a steady stream of work to transcriptionists with different levels of knowledge and expertise.

CRC Salomon

For nearly 125 years, CRC Salomon has been a leader in court reporting and legal transcription. The company works closely with government, banks, insurance companies, healthcare companies, and other entities to provide accurate, high-quality transcription. They’ve also recently branched into transcription work for seminars, meetings, and other types of recorded conversations.

Daily Transcription, Inc.

With over 22,000 clients in the past 15 years, Daily Transcription, Inc. is an industry leader in transcription. Legal transcription is one of the many subsets of transcribing that it offers to customers, and with more than 12 million minutes transcribed over the years, there’s no shortage of work for aspiring legal transcriptionists.

Transcript Associates, Inc.

Based in Branchville, New Jersey, Transcript Associates, Inc. is one of the largest transcription providers in the country. What separates the company from their competitors is its ability to hit deadlines over short turnaround times. With promises to provide transcripts in as little as two hours, it’s a company that promises big results and delivers.

Let Virtual Vocations Help You on Your Journey

If you’re strongly considering applying to work from home legal transcription jobs, don’t go it alone. With Virtual Vocations, you have everything you need to get the ball rolling and become a strong candidate for open positions.

Virtual Vocations offers career services, such as cover letter and resume writing, job coaching, informative blog articles, a Career Center, and thousands of job listings. Allied with Virtual Vocations, you can achieve your goal of becoming the world’s greatest legal transcriptionist. That’s something not just anyone can say.

Which one of these work from home legal transcription jobs caught your eye? Or if you’ve been there before, how do you like working in the remote transciption field? Connect with Virtual Vocations on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube to share your thoughts and tips. We’d love to hear from you!

Based on original content from Kimberly Back