Rush transcripts usually arrive in 1-7 days, and regular transcripts usually arrive within 90 days.
Find out how to request a transcript of a court proceeding.
- This page, Order a court proceeding transcript, is offered by
- Court Services & Law Libraries Department
- Massachusetts Court System
Order a court proceeding transcript
Contacts
Office of Transcription Services
The Details
What you need
An official transcript is a written record of what's said during a court proceeding, transcribed from an electronic recording by a transcriber or reporter. Transcripts are commonly used by parties looking for review from the appeals court. Approved court transcribers on the Massachusetts trial court list are selected to prepare these official transcripts.
To order a transcript, make sure you have the proper case information, including:
- The name of the case and docket number — Give the full case name (ex. - Comm. v. John Doe or John Doe v. Jane Smith) and the full docket number, including the county (ex. – SUCR2013-01234 or SUCV2013-56789).
- The name of the judge and courtroom number — Give the name of the judge that presided over the case and the courtroom where the case was held.
- The date and time of your proceeding — Give the date, start time, and end time of the proceeding. If you don't know the exact start or end time, a.m. or p.m. is helpful to find the specific case on the audio recording.
- NAC (Notice of Assignment of Counsel) number — Provide the NAC number if you're ordering an indigent transcript that will be paid for by the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS).
You'll also need to fill out the online transcript order form.
Fees
Estimated costs are based on producing about 50 pages of transcript for 1 hour of recording. If your proceeding is more than 1 hour long, multiply that by the respective page rate. A copy transcript can only be ordered if an original transcript has already been prepared.
If the court determines that you’re indigent, the state will cover the cost of the transcript.
| Name | Fee | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Rush transcript fee | $4.50 | per page |
| Regular transcript fee | $3 | per page |
| Rush transcript copy fee | $1.50 | per page |
| Regular transcript copy fee | $1 | per page |
How to order
To order a transcript, submit an online transcript order form.
Next steps
Make a deposit payment
When Transcription Services receives your completed order form, they’ll process your request by getting the audio recording from the court and choosing a transcriber to prepare your transcript.
Shortly after that, the transcriber will give you an estimated cost, deposit payment amount, and expected delivery date. When the transcriber receives your deposit payment, they’ll give you an expected delivery date.
You'll need to give a deposit payment to the transcriber. The deposit payment must be made within 5 days for Regular Delivery and 1 day for Rush Delivery. If you don’t give the transcriber the deposit payment within this time frame, your order will be cancelled. When the transcriber confirms they’ve received your deposit payment, they’ll begin working on your transcript.
Before the transcriber completes your transcript, they’ll contact you for the final payment, which is required before the official transcript is completed and given to you.
More info
After the transcriber has received the audio recording from the court, you can expect a rush transcript within 1–7 days, or a regular transcript within 14–90 days. If the recording is long, rush delivery could take more than 7 days.
To cancel a transcript, you must tell the transcriber in writing and pay them for the transcript pages they produced up until notification.
Contact
Address
2 Center Plaza, Suite 540, Boston, MA 02108