Mods: This is a fact-based query. Below I cite Georgia state law. My post here involves trying to discern how state laws elsewhere interact with this law. I am in no way advocating violation of ANY state or local ordinance.
Here’s my question. If I am in GA and record a conversation, I am completely in the clear.
If I then come into a state where two-person notification is the law, can I enter the recording into evidence because it was captured in GA, or any other state in the U.S. that has a single-person notification law?
Or, would it be disallowed? It was recorded completely legally.
One party consent means that one of the participants has to consent to being recorded. Two-party (sometimes “all party”) consent means that both parties involved have to consent for it to be legal.
It sounds like the OP’s question is: “If I record a conversation in a state ((e.g., Georgia)) with single-person notification – a recording which is legal for me to make in that state – would that recording be legally admissible ((in a court, I assume)) in a different state, in which two-person notification for recordings is the law?”
The reason so many phone systems say, “this conversation is bring recorded…” (For training, etc.) is so the company is in the clear if the caller is in a two party notification state. That makes me suspect that it’s required for the recording to be legal (and legally admissible in court). Otherwise, they would just base themselves in a one party notification state.
I’m not sure it is settled law so the easy option is, as you say, put that upfront and then it is never an issue. Costs them $10 to put it in and they are forever covered. Money well spent.
IANAL, but I actually have some experience of this. (I used to provide Technical Surveillance Countermeasures services under a state license.) First, it makes a big difference whether the conversation was in-person or by telephone. Second, you are going to have to somehow authenticate the recording when you submit it as evidence. (And you are certainly going to get an objection from the opposing party.) Third, it is possible, if not likely, that the court will deny the submission simply because it violates the law in its jurisdiction. A good attorney will certainly research precedent and case law to see what previous decisions have been made…and it is highly likely that there have been.
The fact that if it was to be used in legal proceedings, they would take place in a state that prohibits such recordings. Would a judge deny admission into evidence of such a recording?
IANAL, so I don’t have any idea what applies in that state. But I can pretty much guarantee you that opposing counsel will have researched case law on this point in some depth. And, in fact, I have been called in as an expert on several occasions to form an opinion as to whether an audio or video file may have been altered by a party. Submitting an audio file made by one party as an exhibit will eventually get to the point of someone having to testify that it’s a “true and accurate record” of what transpired. (Or whatever language is appropriate to the venue and jurisdiction.) Again, this is an opinion of a non-lawyer.