AI for Lawyers: Transcribe Hearings and Generate Minutes Automatically
A 40-minute hearing produces a recording that almost no one wants to listen to again. Yet it holds the testimony, the motions, the rulings, and the deadlines that will drive the case. Turning that recording into minutes and next steps is usually manual work: listening, pausing, typing, and going back to double-check.
AI transcription changes that flow. It turns the audio into searchable text and, from there, delivers the summary that becomes the basis for the minutes and the list of what needs to be done. The lawyer reviews and completes it — rather than starting from scratch.
Why legal transcription is still a bottleneck
Hearings and dispatches are the heart of a lawyer’s routine, but recording them is the weakest link in the workflow. Those who didn’t record rely on memory and notes from the session. Those who did are left with a long file that has to be gone through in full before it becomes useful.
The problem isn’t the audio quality. It’s that the content is trapped in a format you can’t search: you can’t look up “what the witness said about the contract” inside a recording. You have to listen to it again.
Searchable text solves this. From the transcript, the lawyer can locate a specific statement, compare versions of testimony, and piece together the case timeline without relying on memory.
Before you record: follow the court’s rules
Recording a hearing isn’t unrestricted. Court hearings have their own rules around recording, publicity, and confidentiality, which vary by court, case type, and stage.
In video-conference hearings, the recording is usually handled by the court’s own platform — and, in many cases, the official record is already made available to the parties. In in-person hearings, recording on your own requires authorization and close attention to procedural rules.
Before capturing any audio, confirm what the court allows and follow the applicable legislation, including the LGPD (Brazil’s General Data Protection Law) when personal data is involved. AI speeds up the work afterward; compliance comes first.
The flow: record, transcribe, structure, query
The shortest path between the hearing and the minutes runs through four steps.
1. Record or download the official record. When recording is allowed, capture the audio or use the official record from the court’s platform. If the file already exists, skip straight to the next step.
2. Turn it into searchable text. Send the audio to Sintesy to get the full transcript. From here, you can search for any term — a party’s name, an amount, a condition mentioned — without going back through the entire audio.
3. Structure the content. Beyond the transcript, Sintesy generates an organized synthesis: a summary with the main points, a mind map showing the case timeline, and a checklist with the next steps. It’s this set that becomes the basis for the draft minutes and the list of action items.
4. Query by question. Instead of rereading everything, ask: “what was decided about the deadline?”, “what was the opposing party’s request?”, “what did witness X state about the amount?” The answer comes from the synthesis, not from a fresh read-through.
What AI delivers — and what it doesn’t replace
AI transcription eliminates the mechanical part: listening, pausing, typing, double-checking. It delivers the draft minutes, the list of deadlines and action items, and the ability to query testimony by question.
It doesn’t replace two things. First, technical analysis: AI organizes what was said, but strategy, legal interpretation, and the decision on next steps remain with the lawyer. Second, formal validation: the official minutes follow the court’s format and rules, and the final document requires human review before any signature or filing.
The practical difference is simple: instead of spending hours transcribing, the lawyer reviews a ready draft and devotes that time to what actually matters in the case.
Why it works in Portuguese
Most transcription tools were built for English first and treat Portuguese as a secondary language. In hearings, this shows up when it comes to recognizing technical terms, proper names, and legal jargon — exactly the things that can’t go wrong in a case document.
Sintesy was built for Brazilian Portuguese. The transcription recognizes technical terminology and the names mentioned in the session with greater accuracy, and the synthesis comes out in natural Portuguese, ready to become minutes. This cuts correction time, which is where lawyers lose the most time.
Start with your next hearing
You don’t need to change the whole workflow at once. At your next hearing where recording is allowed, send the audio to Sintesy and compare the generated draft with the minutes you’d produce manually.
If the transcription is accurate and the summary already brings the deadlines and decisions organized, the gain is immediate: less typing time and a searchable record for the entire case — without listening to anything twice.
