Turning a delivered transcript into a usable set of cites
A reporter delivers a bundle: a .ptx for the RealLegal viewer, a PDF, an ASCII copy for import and a word index. Cites live at page and line, which is why the condensed version printed four pages to a sheet is the wrong source to parse. Reading the text back as page and line pairs produces a summary that can be checked against the transcript rather than trusted. The exhibit index matters too, because it ties an exhibit number to the Bates range it came from, and nothing else records that link.
The same client name is typed into the conflicts database, the practice management system, the document management system and the ledger, and a conflict is only found later if two people spelled it the same way.
A firm organises everything by matter, and the matter record is created by hand from an intake form. That single re-keying step seeds four systems, and because there is no shared identifier between them, every later reconciliation is a name match against human typing.
- Outlook
- NetDocuments
- Clio
When this is the wrong thing to build
Pick something else if depositions are rare in the practice. One transcript a quarter is read by the lawyer who took it and needs nothing built. Volume litigation with several transcripts a month is where the page and line index stops being something anyone keeps by hand.
The constraint that shapes it
The conduct rules decide what may be automated here, and they are adopted state by state rather than nationally, so specifics have to be checked against your own jurisdiction. More on how this sector works.
A file arrives. The fields come back typed and checkable. Read what this shape is, or start from one of these.
- Reading dates out of a ratified contract
- Abstracting a commercial lease into dated fields
- Filling an MLS input sheet from the listing agreement
- Reading a nameplate so nobody retypes it
- Reading a year of utility bills into a load calculation
- Getting statements and receipts into one shape
- How do I open a ptx transcript file without the RealLegal viewer?
- What is the difference between an ASCII and a condensed transcript?
- How do I pull page and line cites out of a deposition?
- Does the exhibit index list the Bates numbers for each exhibit?
- How long is the errata period after a deposition transcript arrives?
Back to law firms, or see how this is priced and scoped.