Legal transcription in New York converts recorded depositions, court hearings, arbitrations and legal interviews into accurate written transcripts. American Transcription Services delivers 99%+ accurate, review-ready New York legal transcripts from $0.95 per audio minute, with overnight turnaround at no additional charge, prepared entirely by human transcriptionists from our Manhattan office.
What you get
| Accuracy | 99%+, verified by multi-level human review |
| Turnaround | Overnight available at no additional charge; expedited options on request |
| Pricing | From $0.95 per audio minute; per-page and per-line billing available for legal work |
| Prepared by | 100% human transcriptionists. No AI-only or machine-generated output |
| Audio and video accepted | MP3, WAV, M4A, WMA, MP4, MOV, plus Zoom, Teams and Webex recordings |
| Delivered as | Word (.docx), PDF or plain text; timestamped or clean transcript |
| Security | HIPAA and GDPR compliant, NDAs on request, encrypted file upload |
| Coverage | Statewide — all four federal districts and every New York county |
| Office | 200 Riverside Boulevard, Suite 7N, New York, NY 10069 |
Which New York courts and proceedings do we transcribe?
Our legal transcription in New York spans all three systems attorneys here work across — federal, state and administrative. We work from recordings made in and around those proceedings.
In the federal courts, that means matters before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, sitting in Manhattan and White Plains, and the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn and Central Islip — where commercial, securities and civil rights dockets generate long, multi-speaker recorded testimony. We also work with firms practising in the Northern District in Albany and Syracuse and the Western District in Buffalo and Rochester.
At state level, the largest share of our New York work comes from matters in the New York State Supreme Court, including the Commercial Division in New York County, where complex commercial cases routinely produce full days of recorded deposition video with three or more speakers on the record. We also transcribe recordings from matters in the Kings, Queens, Bronx, Richmond, Nassau, Westchester and Erie County Supreme Courts, the County Courts, the Surrogate’s Courts and the New York City Civil Court.
Appellate work reaches us as recordings held in the case file rather than proceedings themselves — material being assembled for review by the Appellate Division, First Department covering Manhattan and the Bronx, the Second Department covering Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley, the Third and Fourth Departments, and the New York Court of Appeals.
Outside the courts, we regularly transcribe recorded hearings and sessions from the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), New York State Workers’ Compensation Board hearings, NYS Division of Human Rights proceedings, Department of Financial Services matters, and AAA and JAMS arbitrations held in Manhattan.
Note on scope. American Transcription Services transcribes existing audio and video recordings. We do not provide stenographers, court reporters or live capture at proceedings.
What do we transcribe for New York legal teams?
- Depositions and sworn testimony — including recorded video depositions from Commercial Division matters
- Court hearings and trials from recordings held in the case file
- Arbitration and mediation sessions AAA, JAMS and ad hoc panels
- Attorney–client and witness interviews
- Examinations under oath (EUOs) and recorded insurance statements a high-volume category in New York no-fault practice
- Investigations and internal compliance reviews
- Legal dictation attorney notes, memoranda and correspondence
- Administrative and agency hearings OATH, Workers’ Compensation Board, Division of Human Rights
How does CPLR 3116 affect your transcript deadline?
CPLR 3116 governs the signing of depositions in New York State practice, and it sets the clock that makes transcript turnaround matter.
Under CPLR 3116(a), the deposition is read to or by the witness, any changes in form or substance are entered at the end with the reasons for them, and the witness signs before an officer authorised to administer an oath. If the witness does not sign and return the deposition within sixty days, it may be used as fully as though it had been signed — and no changes may be made after that sixty-day point.
CPLR 3116(b) requires the officer to certify that the witness was duly sworn and that the deposition is a true record of the testimony given, and to list all appearances by the parties and their attorneys.
Sixty days sounds generous next to California’s thirty or Texas’s twenty. In practice it rarely is. The clock runs from submission, so every day spent waiting on a written transcript is a day taken off the witness’s substantive review — and errata review on a long technical deposition is not a task anyone wants to compress. Our transcripts are formatted with page and line numbering so that changes can be recorded against specific testimony without the reader hunting for the passage.
One distinction worth stating plainly: the certification under CPLR 3116(b) is made by the officer who administered the oath at the deposition, not by a transcription provider. What we supply is the written transcript, with our own certificate of accuracy attesting that it is a true and complete record of the recording provided to us.
Procedural requirements change. Verify current requirements with the court or the applicable rules before relying on any deadline described here. This page is general information, not legal advice.
Who do we work with in New York?
| Practice area | What the recorded material usually is |
|---|---|
| Commercial and securities litigation | Multi-speaker deposition video, expert testimony, Rule 30(b)(6) corporate representative sessions |
| Financial services regulatory | DFS proceedings, internal investigation interviews, compliance reviews |
| Insurance defence and no-fault | Examinations under oath, recorded statements, independent examination audio |
| Real estate and construction | Site investigation interviews, arbitration hearings, expert walkthroughs |
| Labour and employment | Workplace investigation interviews, Division of Human Rights proceedings, arbitration |
| Personal injury | Witness interviews, recorded statements, treating physician testimony |
| Media and publishing | Source interviews, pre-publication review sessions, defamation matter testimony |
Day to day, legal transcription in New York reaches us from litigation support managers, paralegals, legal operations staff, insurance claims professionals and attorneys at firms ranging from solo practices to multi-office firms with New York offices.
How are transcripts formatted and certified?
- Verbatim or clean verbatim — full verbatim captures every false start, filler and repetition where the record demands it; clean verbatim removes them for readability. You choose per matter
- Speaker attribution — named where identifiable, consistently labelled throughout, with roles marked on first appearance
- Q&A formatting for depositions and examinations under oath
- Page and line numbering so changes and citations can be recorded against specific testimony
- Timestamps at intervals or per speaker change, to your specification
- Exhibit indexing — exhibits referenced in testimony captured and listed
- Crosstalk and inaudible passages flagged with timestamps rather than guessed at — a guessed word in a transcript is worse than a marked gap
- Certificate of accuracy attesting the transcript is a true and complete record of the recording supplied
- Rough drafts and expedited transcripts available where a hearing transcript is needed before the final version
How do we protect privileged material?
Recorded legal material is privileged, confidential, or both, and it is handled accordingly.
- NDAs signed on request before any file is transferred
- Encrypted file upload, rather than email attachments
- HIPAA compliant handling, which matters in personal injury, medical malpractice and workers’ compensation matters where recordings contain protected health information
- GDPR compliant processes for matters touching EU data subjects
- Access on a need-to-know basis — files are visible only to the transcriptionists and reviewers assigned to the matter
- Defined retention and deletion — files removed on your schedule or ours, on request
- 100% human transcription, which means your material is never processed through a third-party automated transcription service
How it works
- Send the audio or video. Secure upload from your browser. Minutes.
- We confirm scope, price and turnaround. You get a firm quote before any work starts — no assumptions and no surprises on the invoice.
- A human transcriptionist prepares the draft. Assigned by subject matter, so New York legal work goes to transcriptionists who know the terminology and the formats.
- Multi-level quality review. A second pass against the original audio, checking names, citations, technical terms and speaker attribution.
- Delivery. Overnight at no additional charge, or on the schedule you agreed at step two. Delivered as Word, PDF or plain text.
New to us? Request a free sample transcription with your quote and see the output before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
How much does legal transcription cost in New York? Pricing starts at $0.95 per audio minute and is adjusted for audio quality, number of speakers, subject complexity and turnaround. Legal work can also be billed per page or per line if that suits your matter accounting better. Every quote is confirmed in writing before work begins.
How fast can I get a New York deposition transcript? Overnight turnaround is available at no additional charge on most legal work, so audio sent at the end of a business day is typically back the following morning. Expedited handling is available where a hearing or injunction transcript is needed sooner. Confirm timing when you request your quote.
Is legal transcription the same as court reporting? No. A court reporter or stenographer captures testimony live at a proceeding and certifies that record as the officer present. Legal transcription converts an existing audio or video recording into a written transcript afterward. American Transcription Services provides transcription only — we do not supply reporters or live capture.
Do you transcribe recordings from New York State Supreme Court matters? Yes. We regularly transcribe recorded material from matters in the New York State Supreme Court, including the Commercial Division in New York County, and from the Kings, Queens, Bronx, Richmond, Nassau, Westchester and Erie County Supreme Courts. We work from recordings supplied by the firm, not from live proceedings.
Can you format transcripts for CPLR 3116 errata review? Yes. Transcripts are delivered with page and line numbering so that changes in form or substance can be recorded against specific testimony, which is how the CPLR 3116(a) review process works in practice. Verify current procedural requirements with the court before relying on any deadline.
How do you keep privileged material confidential? NDAs are signed on request before any transfer. Files move by encrypted upload, are visible only to the transcriptionists and reviewers assigned to your matter, and are retained or deleted on an agreed schedule. Our processes are HIPAA and GDPR compliant, and nothing is routed through third-party automated transcription tools.
What audio and video formats do you accept? MP3, WAV, M4A and WMA audio, MP4 and MOV video, and recordings exported from Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex. If you have material in a format not listed, send it over — we can usually work with it or tell you quickly if we cannot.
Do you cover New York outside New York City? Yes. We serve firms statewide, including matters in the Northern District in Albany and Syracuse, the Western District in Buffalo and Rochester, and the Nassau, Westchester and Erie County Supreme Courts. Work is delivered remotely through secure upload wherever your office is.
Get a quote and a free sample transcript. Legal transcription in New York, from a team that has worked from a Manhattan office since 1999. Send us a few minutes of your audio and see the transcript quality before you commit. Call +1-888-504-7012 or email info@americantranscriptionservices.com.
American Transcription Services · 200 Riverside Boulevard, Suite 7N, New York, NY 10069