CLT Risk Management & Mitigation 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A legal transcriptionist discovers a potential conflict of interest in a case they are transcribing. What is the most appropriate first action?
- Continue transcribing and note it in personal records
- Immediately disclose the conflict to the supervising attorney or firm (Correct answer)
- Recuse themselves without notifying anyone
- Delete the transcription and start over
Correct answer: Immediately disclose the conflict to the supervising attorney or firm
Conflicts of interest must be promptly disclosed to the supervising attorney so the firm can decide how to proceed ethically.
Question 2: Which practice best mitigates the risk of transcription errors in high-stakes legal proceedings?
- Relying solely on spell-check software
- Submitting the first draft immediately to meet deadlines
- Performing multiple rounds of proofreading against the original audio (Correct answer)
- Using abbreviations to speed up the process
Correct answer: Performing multiple rounds of proofreading against the original audio
Multiple proofreading rounds against the source audio ensure accuracy and reduce the risk of costly errors in legal documents.
Question 3: What does 'chain of custody' mean in the context of legal transcription risk management?
- The list of attorneys on a case
- The documented trail showing how evidence or recordings have been handled and stored (Correct answer)
- The billing sequence for transcription services
- The order in which witnesses testify
Correct answer: The documented trail showing how evidence or recordings have been handled and stored
Chain of custody documents who has accessed or handled recordings and transcripts, protecting their integrity and admissibility.
Question 4: A transcriptionist accidentally includes privileged attorney-client communications in a document sent to an opposing party. This is an example of:
- Inadvertent disclosure (Correct answer)
- Intentional waiver
- Judicial notice
- Spoliation
Correct answer: Inadvertent disclosure
Inadvertent disclosure occurs when privileged information is unintentionally shared with an unauthorized party, triggering specific ethical obligations.
Question 5: Which type of insurance is most relevant for a freelance legal transcriptionist to mitigate financial risk from professional errors?
- General liability insurance
- Professional liability (errors and omissions) insurance (Correct answer)
- Workers' compensation insurance
- Product liability insurance
Correct answer: Professional liability (errors and omissions) insurance
Professional liability (E&O) insurance protects transcriptionists from financial losses resulting from claims of negligence or errors in their professional services.
Question 6: When a legal transcriptionist is unsure about an inaudible word in a recording, the safest risk-mitigation approach is to:
- Guess based on context and insert the word without marking it
- Leave the space blank with no notation
- Mark the passage as [inaudible] and flag it for attorney review (Correct answer)
- Delete the sentence containing the unclear word
Correct answer: Mark the passage as [inaudible] and flag it for attorney review
Marking unclear passages as [inaudible] and flagging them preserves accuracy and allows the supervising attorney to resolve the ambiguity.
Question 7: Unauthorized access to confidential legal transcripts stored digitally is best prevented by:
- Storing files in unencrypted email drafts
- Using strong passwords and encrypted storage with role-based access controls (Correct answer)
- Sharing passwords with all team members for efficiency
- Keeping files only on a shared public drive
Correct answer: Using strong passwords and encrypted storage with role-based access controls
Strong passwords, encryption, and role-based access controls are the primary technical safeguards against unauthorized access to sensitive legal documents.
CLT Risk Management & Mitigation 2
A legal transcriptionist discovers a potential conflict of interest in a case they are transcribing.
What is the most appropriate first action?