Martyn Prowel Reduce Client Witness Statement Turnaround Time Using BigHand Speech Recognition.

Martyn Prowel, a Cardiff based specialist law firm, have deployed BigHand speech recognition in addition to their BigHand Enterprise solution, to transform their client document production process, enabling fee earners to benefit from enhanced efficiency and accuracy when transcribing witness statement documents.

Only two weeks into the pilot of the software, implemented among five of their fee earners, Martyn Prowel were so impressed with the speech recognition functionality and accuracy they decided to roll the feature out to all 15 fee earners across the company. They recognised the potential to use speech recognition to improve their process of producing client witness statements, decrease document turnaround time and the time spent by fee earners deliberating with witnesses over the content of their statement.

This unique approach to using speech recognition software has enabled Martyn Prowel fee earners to present a fully transcribed document to the witness, to proof and sign, within minutes of taking their statement. This has provided the company with significant cost and time savings, as this eliminates the need for fee earners to chase clients to sign their statements at a later date and removes the challenge of witnesses wanting to change their statements. The witness’s words are still fresh in their minds, decreasing the amount of disputes previously faced when there were a few days delay in the transcription process.

Hywel Davies, Managing Partner at Martyn Prowel, says: “BigHand allows us to take lengthy and detailed statements with witnesses and have final signed versions in one meeting. Speech Recognition has proven an invaluable tool to all our users, and the immediate benefits of using the software in this way has created new efficiencies for us which previously were out of reach. This saves time and effort and allows a witness to check and sign a statement there and then. The software is easy to use and a welcomed addition.”

Martyn Prowel has paved the way for many other legal firms facing the same challenges, and believes using the speech recognition software in this way will continue to improve productivity and create more time for billable work across the company. This is a massive technological advancement for the firm, and fee earners are elated that speech recognition can provide such integral benefits.

Over 545,000 legal professionals use BigHand software to improve productivity and profitability. BigHand have partnered with Nuance combining their Dragon software with BigHand software to create the BigHand speech recognition module.

Typically the software has proven an accurate and cost effective alternative transcription resource for both legal and professional firms, enhancing their productivity levels, efficiency and ultimate profitability. Martyn Prowel believe using speech recognition in this unique way has transformed their document production process, and enabled them to achieve outstanding cost and time savings which previously were not feasible.