What is the legal admissibility of audio recordings?

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

Long story short; without going into details too deeply.

A buddy of mine setup a audio recorder in his house, then left for the weekend. Caught some very shady things going on in his house while he wasn’t there.

Is this tape legal evidence for a civil case, or does NYS have a law about at least 1 person on the tape has to know it’s being taped? (Even though it’s inside this guys own house and he wasn’t there, he’s the only one who knew about the recorder).

Anyone been in a similar situation/have experience?

2

oh boy.

this is either his kids throwing a party or someone else in his household having teh sexy tyme

3

I am going to go with his wife got stuck by another bro dude.

4

Audio Recording
Most audio recordings without consent of one or all parties are illegal.
Recording audio is very different from video, there are definite federal and state laws prohibiting surreptitious recording and monitoring of audio conversations. These laws are taken very seriously by authorities and failure to abide by them could result in severe consequences.
There are two types of defined recording situations for audio recording. They are usually referred to as “One Party Consent” and “Two Party Consent”.

“One Party Consent” means that only the person doing the recording has to give consent and does not have to notify the other party or parties that the conversation is being recorded.

“Two Party Consent” means the person recording the conversation must notify all of the other parties that the recording is taking place and they must consent to the recording.

Federal Law requires “One Party Consent” for audio recording.
Here is a list of state requirements regarding audio consent:

Here is a list of state requirements regarding audio consent:
Note: Laws change constantly, please check your states current laws before engaging in recording.
If you know of a change or error, please inform us.

States with “One party Consent” for audio recording

Alabama - One Party
Alaska - One Party
Arizona - One Party
Arkansas - One Party
Colorado - One Party
District of Columbia - One Party
Georgia - One Party
Idaho - One Party
Indiana - One Party
Iowa - One Party
Kentucky - One Party
Louisiana - One Party
Maine - One Party
Minnesota - One Party
Mississippi - One Party
Missouri - One Party
Minnesota - One Party
Nebraska - One Party
New Jersey - One Party
New Mexico - One Party
New York - One Party
North Carolina - One Party
North Dakota - One Party
Oklahoma - One Party
Oregon - One Party
Ohio - One Party
Rhode Island - One Party
South Carolina - One Party
South Dakota - One Party
Tennessee - One Party
Texas - One Party
Vermont - One Party
Virginia - One Party
West Virginia - One Party
Wisconsin - One Party
Wyoming - One Party

States with “Two party Consent” for audio recording

California - Two Party
Connecticut - Two Party
Delaware - Two Party
Florida - Two Party
Hawaii - Two Party
Illinois - Two Party
Kansas - Two Party
Maryland - Two Party
Massachusetts - Two Party
Michigan - Two Party
Montana - Two Party
Nevada - Two Party
New Hampshire - Two Party
Pennsylvania - Two Party
Utah - Two Party
Washington - Two Party

5

Thanks LZ - answers what I was looking for! Appreciated.

6

http://i.imgur.com/I6GSf.gif

7

So how about one party recording of sound in your own home? That has to be different?

8

There’s a whole lot more info that would be required to answer this. You’re better off talking to an attorney.

To answer the first part of your question though, yes, NY is a 1 party consent state meaning 1 party in the conversation has to be aware surveillance is in place.

Where is gets interesting is what expectation if privacy these people in your house had, what legal rights they had to be there etc.

9

+1

10

I am super curious about what happened. Spill just a few more beans without giving anything away!

11

And in this case no one in the house knew it was being recorded, so it was a 0-party consent.

True on the second part; adds some other “complications” to the admissible/not-admissible situation.

---------- Post added at 01:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:52 PM ----------

Can’t give any more info away, bro-code prevents it in this case. (Combined with the probable legal/civil ramifications my buddy is dealing with).

12

I solved your issue btw.

Have him play the tape back to the cheating bitch at the same time record her confession that will meet your 1 party criteria.

13

So brotato get caught forking another broad?

14

this is genious

15

Agreed, since the first recording (probably) isn’t valid in court, use it to bluff them into a recording that is.

Disclaimer: Not a lawyer.

16

or just confront her about it straight up? and be like bitch i caught u. whore!!! dirty WHORE!!
lol

17

Did you catch anyone talking about taking a camera?

18

doesn’t one party consent mean that only the person recording needs to consent to it? two party consent refers to the recorder and the recordee… no?

if this is a civil suit do you really need evidence like this to be admissible or not? if it were criminal then that would be different.

19

Since we are all speculating a cheating ho-bag wife, would these recordings help him win out in the divorce?

20

Yea we are all jumping to conclusion that is wife is a whore, which lets be honest they are all whores. With this being said it must be awful listening to that recording hearing your wife getting pounded out by another male.