Voice Recording Without Consent

[Aegelmaere]

An investigator that works for a lawyer recently met with my husband to take his testimony for an assault case in which my husband was the victim. The lawyer for which the investigator worked for is defending the person that assaulted my husband, which is a family member of mine. My husband agreed to give his testimony to the investigator. She listened to his testimony and wrote it down. My husband then reviewed what she wrote and signed the papers containing his statements. A few weeks have past and the person that assaulted my husband entered into an agreement with the prosecutor. My family member that was the assaulter mentioned to another family member that during a meeting that he had with his lawyer, the lawyer played a recording to him that had my husbands voice giving his testimony and also my fathers voice talking to the investigator the day that my husband gave his testimony. My question is, Is it legal for an investigator of a lawyer to record someone giving their testimony without their consent? My husband nor my father we ever told that they would be recorded during the meeting that they had with the investigator.

ANSWER: Some states have what is called "two party consent" which means that both parties have to be aware that a conversation is being tape recorded.  Other states have "one party consent" which means that only one of the parties has to be aware that the conversation is being recorded.

So it depends on what state that you live in.  My state has two party consent.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

Thank you for that response. I live in Washington, DC. Do you know what the law is here? How could I find that information?

[Achishar]

Using Google I came up with this;

Twelve states currently require that both or all parties to consent to the recording. These states are:    * California    * Connecticut    * Florida    * Illinois    * Maryland    * Massachusetts    * Michigan    * Montana    * Nevada    * New Hampshire    * Pennsylvania[11]    * Washington One party notification states

All other states, and the District of Columbia, besides those listed above require one party consent just as federal law. There are certain exceptions to these rules. See full rules here. According to California court case Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney, Inc.(July 13, 2006) if you call from a one party notification state into California, then the two party notification law outweighs the one party notification law.