speckles said:
i live in pennsylvania. i just found out that my husband has recorded some of our conversations. how well would that hold up in the court of law?
18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5703 (1999): It is a felony to intercept any wire, oral or electronic communication without the consent of all participants, and it also is a felony to disclose the contents of a communication when there is reason to know those contents were obtained through an illegal interception.
Anyone whose communication has been unlawfully intercepted can recover the greater of actual damages, $100 per day of violation or $1,000, and also can recover punitive damages, litigation costs and attorney fees. 18 Pa. Const. Stat.§ 5725 (1999).
A trial court has held that a communication protected by the legislation is one in which there is an expectation that it will not be recorded by any electronic device, rather than one in which there is a general expectation of privacy. Thus, the fact that a participant may believe he will have to reveal the contents of a communication, or that other parties may repeat the contents, does not necessarily mean that he would have expected that it would be recorded, and it is the expectation that the communication would not be recorded that triggers the wiretapping law's protections. Pennsylvania v. McIvor, 670 A.2d 697 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1996), petition for appeal denied, 692 A.2d 564 (Pa. 1997).
