Legal Transcription Online Training Course

Canadian Centre for Verbatim Studies:
Earn an Authorized Court Transcriptionist certification or a Digital Legal Monitor qualification from the comfort of your own home or office with online classes from the Canadian Centre for Verbatim Studies. We are a Ministry-approved career training school in Toronto, Canada that offers a distance leaning-based programs with a specific focus on the dynamic field of court transcription.

Online Court Transcription Certification Program:
Duration: 14 weeks.

The final exam takes place in-person in Toronto or Ottawa.

Course Modules & Study Topics:
The following is only a tentative course outline and is subject to change:

Week 1:
- Overview of the history of court reporting and transcription
- What is an ACT?
- Registration with Arkley, creating an ACT profile, liability, police screening
- ACT undertaking
- Outcomes and expectations of the course
- Course materials, including LMS access for downloading course resources

Week 2:
- Rules regarding sharing of audio recordings for transcription
- Overview of the courts: SCJ, OCJ, Family, Small Claims
- MAG Glossary of Legal Terms
- Overview of a transcript
- Liberty Court Player: Initial set up, software settings in LCP, and foot pedal

Week 3:
- Transcript ordering process:
- Internal CSD orders and automatic transcripts
- Orders for restricted transcripts
- Transcript order form and transcript orders

Week 4:
- Liberty Court Player: More detailed navigation of the LCP and foot pedal set up
- Transcription Exercise #1

Week 5:
- Communicating with Recording Management Coordinators
- Transcript preparation package - receipt, review, etc.
- Confidential storage of audio recordings
- Re-assignments
- Overview of annotation standards, with demonstration

Week 6:
- Beginning the transcript process: page layout and margins, lines per page, font
- Elements of a cover page / table of contents / general transcript page
- Warnings on cover pages and table of contents
- Child in need of protection, publication ban, YCJA

Week 7:
- Page numbers, header, footer, multiple header/footer, line numbers
- Exhibits, objections and submissions, voir dire, playback, audio/video playing
- Interruptions, jury enters/exits, timestamps, interpreters, [Sic] and (ph), [Indiscernible], spelling out words
- Stammers, sounds, and false starts
- Inserting quotations

Week 8:
- Transcription Exercise #2

Week 9:
- Inclusions and exclusions: Objections and submissions, oaths, proceeding-specific rules
- Judicial review

Week 10:
- Proofreading
- Grammar, contractions, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, homonyms
- Legal Terminology
- Transcript completion: Printing and binding , front and back cover colours, multiple volumes

Week 11:
- Transcription Exercise #3

Week 12:
- Transcript ordering for appeals
- Appeal certificates for ordering and completion
- Summary conviction appeals to the SCJ 
- Appeals to the Court of Appeal for Ontario
- Inmate appeals ordered by the Court of Appeal
- Front and back covers for appeal
- Printing and binding appeal transcripts

Week 13:
- Invoicing CSD, Crown offices, self-reps, law firms
- Distribution of transcripts
- Electronic delivery
- Self-rep ordering parties
- Helpful tips regarding delivery of transcripts
- Business cards

Week 14:
- Final Exam

Admission Requirements:
Students must be 18 years of age or older, and it is recommended that participants have experience using Microsoft Word as well as a typing speed of 50+ words per minute.

Students should also be comfortable with the English language and possess good listening and comprehension skills.

This program does not require approval under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005.


Online Digital Legal Monitor Program:
Duration: 4-16 weeks. Students must be aged 18 or over

A Digital Legal Monitor is a type of court reporter who uses audio equipment to record in-court proceedings. The Digital Legal Monitor course examines the role and responsibilities of digital legal monitors within the specific context of pre-trial proceedings.

While this course is designed to be taken in 4 weeks, students will have access to the course for 4 months. Students can write the final exam at any time during these 4 months.

This program does not require approval under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005.

Course Objectives:
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the duties and conduct of a digital monitor before, during, and after a proceeding
• Understand the role of digital legal monitors and the environments in which they work
• Recognize and understand the different types of legal documents required for a job
• Identify some of the most common legal terms that arise in pre-trial proceedings
• Record and monitor a pre-trial proceeding using a digital audio recorder
• Assess and solve ethical dilemmas that a digital monitor may encounter