Can I use a recorded conversation between 2 people other than me in court?
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Can I use a recorded conversation between 2 people other than me in court?
I use a hosted PBX phone system for my small business and there is a recording at the beginning of all calls stating this call may be recorded and on outgoing call it notifies the person answering on the other end. The system recording recorded several conversations of my ex telling people how an why she applied for a order of protection which clearly contradicts the reason on the order? Can I use this in court?
Asked on November 11, 2010 under Family Law, North Carolina
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 14 years ago | Contributor
NC is a what is called a "1-party consent state". This means that as long as one of the parties consents to a recording it is lawful. Therefore if someone continues with a conversation knowing that it is, or may be, recorded it can be argued that this constitutes their giving consent to having their conversation recorded. Consequently, if either your wife or the person with whom she was having the conversation with did not hang up or is some other way object to the recording, a court will most probably find that 1 or both gave their consent. However, I'm not sure if notification of a potential recording is only given to the outbound caller. If so then only 1 party can be said tohave consented. If that's the case, and as long as the person that your wife called lives in NC (or another 1 party consent state), the conversations can probably be used in court. If, however, she spoke to someone in a "2-party consent state", then the recording could not be used unless notification of a potential recording was given to both parties to the conversation.
Since this is a technical area of the law and a PBX system is in question, you should consult directly with an attorney in your area as to the specifics of this matter.
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