How much time does dictation save a lawyer or therapist? The real math
Every professional who keeps notes knows the feeling: the session or meeting ends, and the real work of writing it up begins. Dictation promises to give some of that time back. But how much, and is it worth paying for? Here's the math, with real figures and a worksheet you can fill in with your own numbers.
Where the time goes
Lawyers. Clio's 2017 Legal Trends Report, one of the most widely cited studies of law firm time, found that the average lawyer billed just 2.3 hours of an 8-hour day, a utilization rate of 29%. Administrative work such as billing, office tasks and technology took up 48% of their time. Not all of that is note-taking, but file notes, attendance notes and letters are a big part of the non-billable day.
Therapists. A survey by Barbara Griswold, LMFT, a trainer on clinical documentation, found that therapists seeing about 18 clients a week spent around 2.5 hours a week, or 10 hours a month, writing notes. That doesn't include intakes, crisis notes or complex cases, which take longer.
Doctors face the same pattern: patient letters and notes that pile up after clinic, often finished in the evening.
Why speaking is faster than typing
Most people speak several times faster than they type. A note you would type in ten minutes can often be dictated in two or three, while the details are fresh. The catch has always been the second step: cleaning up the transcript. That's where on-device summaries, which turn a rambling recording into key points or a clean memo, change the equation.
The worksheet
Fill in your own figures:
- Notes per week: sessions, meetings or calls you write up.
- Minutes per note today: from opening the document to filing it.
- Minutes per note with dictation: a realistic estimate is a third to a half of your current time, including a quick review.
- Hours saved per week = notes × (minutes today − minutes with dictation) ÷ 60.
- Value per week = hours saved × your hourly rate (or what an evening at home is worth to you).
Worked example: a therapist
18 clients a week, 10 minutes per note today, about 4 minutes with dictation and a quick check:
- 18 × (10 − 4) = 108 minutes, or 1.8 hours a week.
- Over 46 working weeks, that's about 83 hours a year, roughly two full working weeks.
Worked example: a solo lawyer
15 attendance notes, file notes and short letters a week, 15 minutes each today, about 6 minutes dictated:
- 15 × (15 − 6) = 135 minutes, or 2.25 hours a week.
- At $250 an hour, that's time worth about $560 a week, whether you bill it or spend it at home.
These are estimates, not promises: your savings depend on how you work. But even with cautious figures, a dictation app that costs $14.99 a month pays for itself in the first few minutes saved.
The hidden cost: privacy
The fastest tools often send your recordings to a server to be transcribed, and some use them to train AI. For confidential work, that saving can come with a cost that doesn't appear on any invoice: a client confidence on someone else's server. Before you choose, read dictation for lawyers or are AI scribes safe for therapy notes?
Getting the time back for real
- Dictate straight after the session, in the two minutes before the next one, while the details are fresh.
- Use a structure. For therapy notes, a template like SOAP; for legal notes, who, what, decisions, next steps.
- Review once, then file. Don't polish a transcript you could summarize.
- Keep it organized by client so you're not searching later.
Dictalock is built for this routine: record between appointments, get a transcript and summary on your iPhone, filed by client and encrypted with a key only you hold. See how Dictalock works.