Q What is Mobile Transcript?
A Mobile Transcript is an interactive deposition or court transcript specifically optimized to be read and reviewed on a lawyer’s smartphone or mobile device, such as an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, and soon for the Android.
Q How does Mobile Transcript benefit me?
A Mobile Transcript gives you a cool tool to stay productive in your downtime, while commuting, traveling, or at any time while out of the office. You will come to depend on having quick access to all deposition transcripts in one spot on your mobile device. Quick access to transcripts offers you a bit of freedom, to work outside of the office, and without having to spend time preparing, packing and carrying around copies of transcripts. It also eliminates the need for you to log on to the internet or your VPN network or search for emails with transcript attachments. All of your transcripts will be located in a uniform fashion within the app, under a Case List, itemized by deponent name, or transcript title, and date.
Q Why would I ever want to read an entire deposition transcript on a smartphone?
A We can’t imagine our service will replace software transcript viewers for desktops and laptops, but Mobile Transcript does provide a product for lawyers looking for a mobile solution. At your fingertips, when you are away from the office, you can quickly access and review certain parts of testimony, and you don’t need to break open a laptop, search your inbox for transcripts, or log into your law firm network to do so. You don’t even need an Internet connection. Mobile Transcript is just a cool high-tech tool you can use to help increase your efficiency, and even improve your work flow, when you’re away from the office.
Q Which smartphones or wireless mobile devices work with the app?
A Our free app is available for the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, and will soon be available for the Android.
Q How is a Mobile Transcript different than a court reporter just emailing a transcript to me?
A Emailed text files and PDF files are not optimized for wireless devices. Mobile Transcript not only optimizes your transcripts to be read on a mobile device, but it is also an interactive app with many features, allowing you to be productive and log billable time while doing so. You now have immediate access to all transcripts, in all cases, from a smartphone or wireless device. Whether it’s during meetings or attending more depositions, commuting or traveling, you will have immediate access to your transcripts without ever needing to access a desktop or laptop computer.
Q How is this app different than those apps that optimize PDF files for a wireless device?
A Mobile Transcript not only optimizes your transcripts to be read on an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, and soon for the Android, but the Mobile Transcript app is interactive. Lawyers can highlight portions of important testimony with the tap of a finger, then export and email those annotations, via deposition summary or PDF containing the yellow highlights, to an associate, expert witness or legal assistant.
Q How can I get a Mobile Transcript?
A From your Apple wireless device, click on the App Store icon. Seach “Mobile Transcript” and download the free app. We have an iPhone app and an iPad app, so be sure to download the proper one for your specific device. You may also download the app to your computer from iTunes, or download the BlackBerry app directly to your Desktop Device Manger from the Get App link on our website:
https://www.mobiletranscript.com/transcript/pages/getapp/
Sign up for a free Mobile Transcript online account at this link:
https://www.mobiletranscript.com/transcript/lawyers/register/
Then ask your court reporter for a Mobile Transcript. As soon as the reporter uploads the transcript to your account, you will receive an email notification that a new transcript has been saved to your app account, ready for your review.
Q What does a Mobile Transcript cost?
A Our apps are free. Signing up for an online account to recieve Mobile Transcripts is free. Your reporter may or may not charge you to upload transcripts to your account.
Q What are some of the features of the Mobile Transcript app?
A This is one of the very few productivity apps created just for lawyers and offers the following interactive features:
- Highlight important testimony in yellow, as if the lawyer was marking up a printed transcript with a yellow highlighter
- Highlights may be exported and emailed, with the highlighted text itemized by page and line number, in spreadsheet format
- Entire transcript may be exported and emailed in PDF format, containing the lawyer’s yellow highlights
- Jump to next highlight
- Keyword search
- Go To Page # search
- Automatic bookmark
- Automatic billing timer, itemizing the lawyer’s review time in minute increments, listing case, transcript and date, accessible online 24-7
- Billing log may be exported in Excel or PDF and emailed to another person at any time
Product Updates in the Works:
- Hyperlinked exhibits within the transcripts in the app
- Access a saved copy of the transcript, where the lawyer can still read and highlight transcripts in Airplane Mode, since the current app requires 3G or WiFi to access transcripts
- Development of a desktop version that syncs to the app, where the lawyer can continue working on the most updated version of the transcript from a computer
- Integration of Mobile Transcript into other eDiscovery software platforms
- Mobile Transcript service available within reporter and lawyer Visionary software accounts
Q Is the app difficult to navigate?
A Our app is extremely intuitive and user friendly. The app is fun to use, and you will enjoy having access to all of your case transcripts on your smartphone or wireless device at all times. Our app works best with the touch screen devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry Storm, and soon the Android smartphones. With a touch of a finger, you can view your case list, review deposition transcripts, highlight testimony, and export your annotations to third parties in a matter of minutes.
Q What is the billing timer?
A When you click on a transcript, you are prompted to turn on the billing timer. Tap Yes if you want your review time for that session to be automatically logged. It’s very important that you click the back arrow key to exit the transcript to end a session, recording the end time, which is necessary to log the number of minutes for your review time. Just be sure to exit out of each transcript after every session to ensure your time is properly logged. Otherwise, your review time may not be logged. You may access your billing log by logging into your online Mobile Transcript account. You will not see your time log in the app itself. The billing log will itemize your review time in minute increments, listing the case, transcript, date, start time, end time, and total number of minutes.
Q How do I highlight portions in the transcript?
A Open a transcript and start highlighting all the lines you want, with the tap of your finger for touch-screen devices. Tap on the highlighted line again to remove the highlighting.
Q How do I email the highlighted portions?
A Once you have finished highlighting, click on the Menu button, then choose from several different emailing options.
Q Why are there spacing problems at times within a Mobile Transcript?
A You may see what appear to be spacing problems from time to time within a Mobile Transcript file. This is normal. The integrity of the transcript text has not been altered. Court reporters from around the world have different standards for the size of the transcripts they produce, and since our software must optimize the size of each and every one of those files for various wireless devices, sometimes the spacing looks a little funny in some transcripts, especially the caption and index pages. Rest assured, the page and line numbers will still match up perfectly once you start highlighting important portions of testimony and emailing those selections to your expert witnesses, paralegals and associates for review.
Q How do I know a reporter has uploaded a transcript to my app account?
A You will receive an email notifying you that a reporter has uploaded a new transcript to your account, which lists the case, witness name or transcript title, date reported.
Q How secure is the Mobile Transcript website?
A Court reporters uploading transcripts to lawyer accounts via the Mobile Transcript website is far safer than emailing transcripts, even more secure than emailing transcripts with password protection. Mobile Transcript employs bank-level SSL security protection and takes the following IT measures to ensure the security of your transcripts:
- Monitoring Server Access: Servers are physically secured 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Servers require bio-retinal scan authorization for access. Server activity is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. OS patching and maintenance are done only by certified professionals.
- Cisco PIX 501 Firewall: Fully managed CiscoDedicated Firewall Port Blocking, packet inspection, and VPN SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Each file transmission is facilitated with 128-bit SSL encryption.
- Other Security Features: Actively Managed Anti-Virus Intrusion Detection System. Password protection for mobile devices.
Q Can a reporter email to me a Mobile Transcript file?
A No, a Mobile Transcript file cannot be emailed. Reporters upload transcripts to your account via our website. Our website optimizes that file for your mobile device, and the file is saved to your app account. You then immediately receive an email notification that a new transcript has been uploaded to your account. Simply log into the app from a wireless device to access to the transcript. Using the interactive features of the app, you can now begin to review the transcript, making annotations, and emailing those annotations, or deposition summaries, to associates, expert witnesses and legal assistants. Your time can also be logged, and may be accessed online, for billing purposes.
Q Can I get Mobile Transcript files for previous depositions I’ve ordered?
A Yes. Simply ask any court reporter to upload previously ordered transcripts to your Mobile Transcript account.
Q How long will a Mobile Transcript stay in my app account?
A Transcripts will stay in your app account until you delete them, but we suggest you delete them after your case is done, to avoid taking up unnecessary space in your app account.
Q Can I manage my account online?
A Yes. There are many ways for you to organize and manage your account via computer. Just log into your online account by visiting MobileTranscript.com and clicking the Login button. Then enter the same email address and password that you use to log into the app on your wireless device.
Q What happens if I tap on a transcript and it kicks me out of the app?
A This is a common experience if your court reporter does not upload the correct type of ASCII transcript file to your app account. This does not mean the file is corrupt in any way, just that the reporter needs to upload the proper type of file. Ask the reporter to upload the correct type of ASCII file and try it again. If the problem persists, please alert us by contacting support@mobiletranscript.com.