Some recent experiences got me thinking about dictation and whether it was either a dying art or whether it was a crucial technology to help firms beat costs? First the list the things that gave thought to the fact that dictation is dying out:

• Comments from lawyers on the differences in the generations. This was actually a discussion on the quality of the dictations, in that the younger lawyers were “embarrassed about their own voices” and dictated more quietly. This made me think that this behaviour may be leading to the next generation of lawyers actually being happier typing up the draft themselves rather than dictating it.
• Also there does seem to be a number of lawyers now that don’t dictate at all. Again is it easier for them to type up drafts themselves?

But then with digital dictation, especially when the system allows for workflow, I thought there would be a number of added benefits:

• Devices can be used more effectively for just relaying instructions in addition to dictating documents. Using tools like BlackBerry clients or standard phone lines to route these instructions quickly to secretaries makes this much easier. 
• Workflow systems generally can make more efficient use of secretaries and document production units, this can be used to smooth peaks and troughs across secretaries (in some cases I guess it can also facilitate use of external companies, as I presume Eversheds recent deal will utilise such technology).

So will dictation die out or take off?

Well I think analogue dictation will die, the days of the tape surely are numbered! But I don’t think digital dictation will die out. Sure there may be some lawyers who can type up short documents as fast as they could dictate them, but for others and for all but the short documents dictation will be faster.

Also with the added benefits workflow brings it will still be beneficial. Given that, in this year especially, the lawyer-to-secretary staffing ratio has increased, the ability to spread the load using workflow will be a big benefit once the growth returns.

The panacea and key technology to secure the future of dictation is of course speech recognition, as it has been ever since I moved into Legal IT. But this is still a long way off in my opinion!

This article over on “The Greatest American Lawyer” that I found after writing this blog post has a good bullet point list of advantages of digital dictation and is worth a read.