recording mental-health tennessee
Legal recourse if fellow patient recorded and distributed group therapy session
<p>Person A is participating in a PTSD/Abuse recovery program in Tennessee.  During a private conversation (not part of any official therapy) they divulge to patient B highly personal information regarding why they (Patient A) are in the program.  Patient B, without Patient A's knowledge or consent, records the conversation and sends the recording to dozens of other patients in the program.</p>
<p>What legal recourse does A have, if any?</p>

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<p>What legal recourse does A have, if any?</p>
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<p>It mostly depends on whether person A had a <em>reasonable</em> expectation of privacy. The fact that the session was a group therapy suggests that such expectation is not reasonable.</p>
<p>Tennessee is a one-party-consent state, thereby entitling <em>any</em> participant to record the session. Also, your description nowhere indicates that patient B has a duty of confidentiality toward person, A or that the group therapy has a rule that overrides that entitlement.</p>
<p>Under Tennessee law the invasion of privacy is a tort, but it requires the intentional intrusion &quot;<em>upon the solitude or seclusion of another or his private affairs or concerns</em>&quot;, <a href="https://www.leagle.com/decision/intnco20091215730" rel="noreferrer"><em>Harris v. Horton</em>, 341 S.W.3d 264, 271 (2009)</a> (overruled on other grounds; citing the Restatement (Second) of Torts at 652B). The term &quot;group therapy&quot; seemingly strikes the notion of solitude or seclusion.</p>
