For Court Clerks ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have Otter.ai set up to automatically transcribe and summarize court administrative staff meetings — so you can draft accurate meeting minutes in under 10 minutes instead of 30–45 minutes of note reconstruction. The AI handles the transcript; you verify and finalize.
Important: This guide is for administrative staff meetings, not official court proceedings. Official court proceedings are recorded by the court's official recording system; this tool is for internal administrative use only.
What you'll need
What you should see: The Otter dashboard with a "New Conversation" button and your transcript history.
Before starting, tell all participants: "I'll be recording this meeting using a transcription app to help with the minutes. Is everyone okay with that?"
Wait for consent before proceeding. If anyone objects, take notes manually as you normally would.
On your smartphone:
What you should see: A live transcript appearing on your screen as people speak — words appear within a few seconds of being said.
What you should see: A structured summary with: main topics discussed, decisions noted, and action items with any names mentioned.
The AI handles capturing everything; you handle the official formatting and sign-off.
Convert Otter summary to formal minutes:
Convert these meeting notes into formal administrative meeting minutes: [paste summary]. Include: agenda items, decisions, and action items. Format for [Court Name]. Formal style.
Extract action items only:
From these meeting notes, extract only the action items — specific tasks assigned to specific people with deadlines if mentioned: [paste Otter summary]
Draft a follow-up email:
Based on these meeting notes, draft a follow-up email to all staff summarizing the key decisions and their action items: [paste summary]