Summary
Parties may need to make amendments to the transcripts produced during a hearing. The below guidance explains how the parties can review and amend transcripts.
Amendment requests procedure
- An amendment form will be provided by email at the end of each hearing day and all amendments must be submitted by way of this form; requests made by way of a track changed document will not be accepted.
- Any amendments must first be agreed between the parties before submitting a single consolidated form to your Case Manager by email with all parties in copy. It is essential that all amendments are combined in to one form and listed in order of page and line.
- It may take up to 5 working days to circulate each amended transcript. When supplying multiple amendment forms the timeframe will run consecutively rather than concurrently with priority being given to the oldest transcript unless we are advised otherwise. This timeframe is dependent on the volume of amendments requested and we will endeavour to inform the parties on receipt of the form if we believe it will take longer than the anticipated 5 working day turnaround.
- Please note our Production Team advise clients to submit amendment forms on a rolling basis throughout the hearing as these are actioned on a first come first serve basis. Please endeavour to submit amendment forms within 10 working days of the hearing concluding in order for us to meet our standard turnaround.
Type of amendments
- Correction - a substantive change correcting the transcript such as typographical errors.
- Stylistic Changes - amendments include the addition or alteration of punctuation or capitalisation.
- De minimis – changes to the transcript which contradict the original audio recording.
Please note that we are unable to action the following: bolding of text, underlining text, changing text to italics and the inclusion of footnotes. We are also unable to make any global changes that involve changing punctuation or spacing within the transcript.
We work with a specialist transcription software which is industry standard for stenography and this software is quite rigid in functionality. As a result, there is no way for us to lock in existing page and line references and any change has the potential of altering page and line references.
Applicable if parties have been permitted access to the audio recording of proceedings:
- Any amendments requested will be made irrespective of the audio recording, unless a review is specifically requested by the parties.
- In the event the parties are unable to agree the proposed amendments, this should be stated in the covering email when the form(s) are submitted so that our production team can review these against the audio and provide comments back to the parties for final agreement.
- Please note that parties should ensure that each amendment is correctly categorised as either a correction or a stylistic / de minimus change. We will be carrying out a spot check to ensure amendments have been accurately categorised.
Applicable if parties do not have access to the audio recording of proceedings:
- Any amendments requested will be reviewed against the audio recording, and we will revert to the parties with our comments.
- Corrections will be made free of charge but any stylistic or de-minimis changes are chargeable at the rate of £200 per hour. Please note this includes amendments that disagree with the audio recording, and changes to translation/interpretation.
- Chargeable amendments will be sent to parties for consideration before the changes are made. Parties should then confirm whether they wish to proceed with these amendments as quickly as possible so as to avoid any delays to transcript distribution.
Expedited service
- As previously mentioned, it may take up to 5 working days to circulate an amended transcript, but we will always endeavour to turn transcript amendment forms around as quickly as possible.
- If you require an expedited service, please advise your Case Manager as soon as possible so that we are able to look into the additional resource needed to accommodate your request.
- All amendments requested on an expedited service will be billable.