home phone monitoring

[homie]

I've spoken to several police officiers regarding the legality of tapping your own home phone line. They have all told me that it was in fact legal but was not legal in the presentation of evidence in a court of law without the outside calling parties express knowledge or consent. This aspect is understandable but, is there anything else I should know regarding the legality of this issue? In Florida.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

I've spoken to several police officiers regarding the legality of tapping your own home phone line. They have all told me that it was in fact legal but was not legal in the presentation of evidence in a court of law without the outside calling parties express knowledge or consent. This aspect is understandable but, is there anything else I should know regarding the legality of this issue? In Florida.

My response:

Florida (better known as the Island of "Chad")

Fla. Stat. ch. 934.03 (1999): All parties must consent to the recording or the disclosure of the contents of any wire, oral or electronic communication in Florida. Recording or disclosing without the consent of all parties is a felony, unless the interception is a first offense committed without any illegal purpose, and not for commercial gain, or the communication is the radio portion of a cellular conversation. Such first offenses and the interception of cellular communications are misdemeanors.

Anyone whose communications have been illegally intercepted may recover actual damages or $100 for each day of violation or $1,000, whichever is greater, along with punitive damages, attorney fees and litigation costs. Fla. Stat. ch. 934.10 (1999).

A federal appellate court has held that because only interceptions made through an "electronic, mechanical or other device" are illegal under Florida law, telephones used in the ordinary course of business to record conversations do not violate the law. The court found that business telephones are not the type of devices addressed in the law and, thus, that a life insurance company did not violate the law when it routinely recorded business-related calls on its business extensions. Royal Health Care Servs., Inc. v. Jefferson-Pilot Life Ins. Co., 924 F.2d 215 (11th Cir. 1991).

IAAL

 

[HomeGuru]

Here is what I do. My voicemail greeting states: You have called the HomeGuru. All calls are being monitored and recorded for security and quality control purposes. If you do not consent to the recording of this conversation then please hang up now. Thankyou.