divorce and recordings

[jackyoung]

What is the name of your state? Tennessee

I have been married 10+ years, with no children. The marriage has not been good for a while. Back about 10 months ago, I reconnected a recorder to the phone line for a week, while the spouse was working nights. There were some phone conversations between the spouse and I, and the spouse and other people. I disconnected the phone, but reconnected it in February, after the spouse cleaned out the joint checking (that had our income tax $’s and left $13 in the account) and opened an individual account, also added some chain locks to the doors. The day that I reconnected the recorder in February, I left to run an errand, and when I returned the spouse had removed the recorder and the tape (that was from 10 months ago) from the house. I left a month later, and the spouse filed divorce papers on me a week later. Now the spouse is wanting to file charges against me with the tape that is in their possession. Can the spouse do this, even though they knew the recorder was in the house and was used to tape conversations? A couple of years ago, we had recorded the spouse’s child by a previous marriage that resided with us, but wanted to go live with the other parent (the child had a boyfriend that lived in the same town, with the other parent). We even carried the recorder to let some friends use it for a short time. Help!

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by jackyoung

What is the name of your state? Tennessee

I have been married 10+ years, with no children. The marriage has not been good for a while. Back about 10 months ago, I reconnected a recorder to the phone line for a week, while the spouse was working nights. There were some phone conversations between the spouse and I, and the spouse and other people. I disconnected the phone, but reconnected it in February, after the spouse cleaned out the joint checking (that had our income tax $’s and left $13 in the account) and opened an individual account, also added some chain locks to the doors. The day that I reconnected the recorder in February, I left to run an errand, and when I returned the spouse had removed the recorder and the tape (that was from 10 months ago) from the house. I left a month later, and the spouse filed divorce papers on me a week later. Now the spouse is wanting to file charges against me with the tape that is in their possession. Can the spouse do this, even though they knew the recorder was in the house and was used to tape conversations? A couple of years ago, we had recorded the spouse’s child by a previous marriage that resided with us, but wanted to go live with the other parent (the child had a boyfriend that lived in the same town, with the other parent). We even carried the recorder to let some friends use it for a short time. Help!

Tennessee is a one party state. That means if one of the parties to the call consents to it being taped, its not illegal. However, one of the parties has to consent. You obviously consented to taping the calls between yourself and your spouse, however your spouse's conversations with others could be a problem for you.

[Ohiogal]

Prove that she knew you were recording all of her conversations at the time that you did so. Prove that she consented. If not you have just broken the law. Congrats. Just because the recorder is in the house or she knows it exists doens't mean she consented to her conversations being recorded.

[jackyoung]

But, can they prove who did the actually taping from listening to the tape, at the moment I have no idea, what is on the tape, I did not listen to it, when I hooked it up in February? For all I know she may have recorded conversations, to make it look like I taped them? Or she may have recorded me also? And I left the house for a couple of hours, when I reconnected it in February. I won't know until, I get to hear the tape. But just wondered with her knowing that conversations had been recorded, that there might some kind of technicality to get around all of this.

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by jackyoung

But, can they prove who did the actually taping from listening to the tape, at the moment I have no idea, what is on the tape, I did not listen to it, when I hooked it up in February? For all I know she may have recorded conversations, to make it look like I taped them? Or she may have recorded me also? And I left the house for a couple of hours, when I reconnected it in February. I won't know until, I get to hear the tape. But just wondered with her knowing that conversations had been recorded, that there might some kind of technicality to get around all of this.

You hooked up the recorder, she didn't. Therefore you are going to have a hard time claiming that you weren't the person who recorded the conversations.