Transcription for lawyers

What lawyers use recordings for

• Client meetings. An intake or a discussion of a draft writ is full of details: dates, amounts, names. With a transcript you do not have to listen and take notes at the same time, and you can later look up exactly what the client said about a particular date.
• Witness hearings and preparatory interviews. You record conversations with witnesses or experts ahead of proceedings word for word, so you can compare statements side by side.
• Court sessions, only where recording is allowed. You cannot simply record in a courtroom. If you have permission, or the recording is provided by the court or a disciplinary tribunal itself, Murmel turns it into text. The official record remains authoritative.
• Phone and video calls. A Teams or Google Meet meeting can be captured by the note taker, which is visible in the participant list. A recorded phone call you upload as a file.

Professional secrecy and GDPR: why the place of processing matters

What a client tells you falls under your duty of confidentiality (see articles 10a and 11a of the Dutch Advocatenwet and the rules of the Netherlands Bar). Sending a recording of it to a service where you do not know where the audio goes sits badly with that. With Murmel the chain is short and explainable: audio, transcripts, account and payments are processed and stored in the Netherlands, with Dutch providers under data processing agreements. Google only sees website statistics, never your audio or transcripts. Recordings are not used to train the model unless you opt in.

Just as important is how long a recording exists. By default everything stays until you delete it. You can also set recordings and transcripts to disappear automatically after 1, 7, 30 or 90 days or after a year. A workflow many firms will recognise: export the transcript to Word, save it in the case file, and let Murmel delete the recording after 7 days. That way the document lives in one place, your own case management system.

Legal terms spelled correctly

A model that misspells legal terms or spells your client's name differently every time costs you correction time. In the custom vocabulary you set the words Murmel must recognise: names of parties and witnesses, place names, and Dutch legal terms such as "kort geding", "conclusie van antwoord", "akte uitlating productie" or "wraking". The list applies to every following recording, so you add to it once per case.

Word for word for evidence

For a statement that may serve as evidence, what counts is not only what someone meant but what they literally said. The difference between a readable and a full verbatim transcript is explained in what is verbatim transcription. Murmel delivers a transcript with speakers and timestamps. In the editor you click a word and hear exactly that fragment, so you check and complete hesitations, interruptions and doubtful passages yourself before the document goes into the file.

Honestly: when a human typist is the better choice

If you need a transcript that someone else checks on your behalf and that you can submit without reviewing it yourself, or if the recording is so poor that even a person struggles, a human transcription agency is the better choice. According to their public rates, Dutch agencies charge roughly €1.10 to €2.00 per audio minute and deliver within 5 to 10 working days. Murmel costs €1.45 per hour of audio with prepaid credits (incl. VAT) and is ready in minutes, but the reviewing is up to you. The trade-off is worked out in Murmel or a transcription agency. Many firms combine both: Murmel for daily work, an agency for the one document that must be flawless and checked by a third party.

What it costs

A lawyer with ten one-hour client meetings a month fits comfortably within Basic: €10.89 per month incl. VAT for 12 hours, cancel monthly, starting with a 14-day trial. If you only record now and then, prepaid credits are handier: from €6.05, valid for six months. For a firm with several lawyers there is a team account with shared minutes, one invoice and a data processing agreement; see pricing or get in touch.

Frequently asked questions