U.S. Court of Appeals Selects Verdatum for Dictation

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has completed its rollout of Verdatum's Voice-Flow digital dictation workflow solution for 40 judges and staff located throughout nine western states and two Pacific Island jurisdictions.

Prior to implementing Verdatum, the court was using a mixed-bag of dictation technology. A few judges had Lanier 650s (a call-in system with four cassettes on a carousel), with the remaining judges using Philips or Olympus digital recorders. Today all of the judges and staff are on one common platform accommodating dictation input via dial-in dictation and the existing fleet of digital recorders.

A key requirement of the judges and staff was workflow flexibility. "We push the Verdatum system to do a lot," Tuviel Levi, courtroom technology specialist, said in a statement."We have some judges who call in, some judges who use their iPhones, some judges who use their BlackBerrys, and some judges who actually hand the digital recorder to their secretaries to upload on their behalf." With the Verdatum Voice-Flow system the unique needs of all can be easily accommodated.

The Verdatum system gives the court centralized access to all dictation files, with the ability to reroute jobs to available staff. Additionally, the staff really appreciates the email notification they receive each time a judge dictates a job.

Lastly, Verdatum's use of AES 256-bit encryption technology helped allay judges' fears of confidentiality breaches.

"To be selected as the dictation workflow solution by the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit makes us very proud," said John Methfessel, president and CEO of Verdatum, in the statement. "It is further validation of the legal technology leading market position of Voice-Flow, and our intense focus on legal entities and their needs. We look forward to continuing to serve judiciaries on the federal, state, and local levels."