Legal transcription software

Why legal teams transcribe with AI

Legal work runs on the record, and more and more of the record arrives as audio and video.

Discovery comes in as bodycam footage and jail calls. Depositions happen over Zoom. Client interviews pile up faster than anyone can take notes. AI transcription is how legal teams keep up without spending their billable hours on playback.

Speed that matches your docket

Sonix returns transcripts in minutes, not days: a one-hour recording typically comes back in 5 to 6 minutes, timestamped and speaker-labeled, ready to review. For live depositions, hearings, and virtual proceedings, real-time transcription captures every word as it is spoken, so your team works from the transcript the same day.

Accuracy where every word matters

Sonix delivers up to 99% accuracy on clear audio, with AI trained on legal terminology, court proceedings, and deposition formats. You stay in control of the final text: the in-browser editor plays the audio in sync with the transcript, so a paralegal can check any passage against the source recording in seconds. Accuracy tracks audio quality, so crosstalk and noisy field recordings deserve a closer review.

Search instead of playback

A transcript turns hours of audio into something you can query. Multi-file search scans every transcript in your account for a name, date, or phrase and returns timestamped results from each recording, and one click plays that exact moment in the original audio or video. That is the difference between knowing the testimony exists and finding it the night before a motion deadline.

Cost that scales with caseload

Human transcription services and court reporters bill by the page or the audio minute, and their turnaround is measured in days. AI transcription costs a fraction of those rates, which changes what gets transcribed: instead of choosing which recordings justify the expense, teams transcribe the entire case file and search all of it.

Human review still has its place, and many teams pair an AI first draft with attorney or court reporter review for anything that will be filed. See Sonix Legal pricing for plans, or our transcription cost guide for how AI and human rates compare.

Fits the tools you already use

Send transcripts to Clio in one click and import recordings from Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox. Connect Zoom so recorded remote depositions are transcribed automatically once they finish, or automate the whole pipeline with Zapier and our other integrations, webhooks, and the Sonix API. Sonix Legal Enterprise adds custom legal-tech integrations, such as Relativity and NetDocuments, scoped and priced with your team.

Security and compliance for privileged material

Case files carry attorney-client privilege, work product, and personal data, so your IT and procurement teams need verifiable controls before any transcription platform touches them.

Three questions decide whether a platform is safe for privileged material: who can see the file, what the vendor does with it, and what happens when you delete it. Everything below describes how Sonix runs today, and all of it can be verified during procurement.

SOC 2 Type II certified

Sonix is independently audited every year against standards for security, availability, and confidentiality, with automated monitoring of more than 100 internal controls. The audit tests how we actually run, not just how we say we run.

Encrypted in transit and at rest

TLS encryption protects every transfer between you and Sonix, including transfers between data centers for backup and replication. At rest, AES-256 server-side encryption secures our database and file storage.

No AI training on your data, ever

Nothing you upload is used to train our systems or anyone else's. Recordings, transcripts, and case files stay confidential and are never sold or shared, and Sonix employees cannot open your files unless you give express written consent to investigate an issue.

Access control built for legal teams

Role-based permissions let you grant and revoke access at several levels, two-factor authentication can be required across the team, and shared transcripts can be password-protected. Sonix Legal Enterprise adds SSO/SAML, SCIM user provisioning, and full event and access audit logs.

You control retention and deletion

View, export, and delete your files at any time, and deleted audio and transcripts are completely wiped. Sonix follows GDPR protocols and signs a DPA and SCC on request, and Enterprise plans add file retention and deletion controls.

Hosted and monitored in the USA

Data is stored at AWS in the USA, in enterprise-grade facilities with around-the-clock monitoring, on-site security staff, and regular security audits. Independent security firms run annual network and application penetration tests, and every Sonix employee completes security training each year.

What to ask legal sales

Some protections are contractual or depend on your plan, so put them on your procurement checklist rather than assuming them:

• A HIPAA Business Associate Agreement, available on Enterprise plans and relevant when a case file contains medical records
• Custom NDA, MSA, and DPA terms
• Data residency options
• Penetration testing summaries, shared under NDA
• PII redaction and manual redaction, both Sonix Legal Enterprise features

Send your requirements to our legal sales team and they will map each one to the right agreement. The Sonix security overview covers the full stack.

Verbatim transcripts, timestamps, and the record

Legal transcription is not note-taking: when a transcript supports testimony, the record needs every word as spoken, including false starts, interruptions, and crosstalk attributed to the right speaker.

Sonix supports verbatim transcription workflows. Turn on the Filler words setting before you upload and the um, uh, and hmm stay in English transcripts instead of being cleaned up, while the synced editor makes it practical to check a verbatim passage against the audio line by line.

Timestamps anchor every statement to the audio

Every line carries the moment it was spoken, so a quote in a motion can be checked against the source in one click. Keep the timestamps in the export and co-counsel, opposing counsel, or the court can trace any quoted line back to the recording.

Speaker labels keep attribution straight

Sonix separates examiner from witness and detective from counsel automatically, and your team can rename, merge, and correct the labels in the editor before anything leaves the account.

Your review becomes part of the record

The lawyer, not the software, vouches for the final text. Version history captures every change your team makes, so the path from AI draft to verified transcript stays visible before anything goes into an exhibit.

Exports in the format the matter needs

Once the transcript is verified, export Word or PDF for review sets and exhibits, SRT or VTT when captioned video is part of the record, and plain text for loading into case management or eDiscovery tools. Speaker names and timestamps can travel with every export.

A note on admissibility

Whether a transcript or recording is admissible, and in what form, is decided by the court under its own rules. Requirements differ by jurisdiction, by proceeding, and by whether a certified court reporter or transcriber must attest to the record. Sonix supports the workflow that gets you there with fast verbatim first drafts, timestamps, speaker labels, and clean exports. It does not certify transcripts, and this page is not legal advice.

Confirm requirements with the court and with counsel before relying on any transcript, AI or human, as evidence. For background, read our guides to court-admissible transcription software and accuracy in legal transcription.

Multilingual evidence and translated transcripts

Cases cross languages, whether it is a witness statement in Spanish, a jail call in Mandarin, or a deposition with an interpreter.

Sonix transcribes 54+ languages, including Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese, and translates transcripts into 54+ languages. It transcribes first and translates second, so you can verify the source-language text before you rely on the translation, and the translation stays synced to the original timestamps.

For review and discovery triage, machine translation tells your team what a recording contains and where to focus. Sonix provides AI machine translation, not certified translation, so when a court or agency requires a certified translation, a qualified human translator has to do or attest that work. Use Sonix to find the passages that matter, then send only those to your certified translator, a far smaller job than translating everything blind.