united-states evidence recording federal-courts phonecall
Can I use a recorded phone call as evidence in a federal court case if I&#39;m a participant in the conversation (in two single-party consent states)?
<p>Would it be legal for me to record a phone call, without the other party’s explicit knowledge or consent that it was being recorded beforehand, as long as I, a participant in the conversation, consent to it being recorded, to use as evidence in a federal court case if both calls were made in single party consent states (i.e., from Texas, Connecticut, South Dakota, etc)?</p>

<p>There are two distinct legal questions lurking in this question.</p>
<p>One, in a conversation on the phone between someone in a single party consent state and a two party consent state, is it legal for the single party consent state participant to record the conversation.</p>
<p>Second, assuming for the sake of argument that the recording was made illegally, it is admissible in evidence in a civil lawsuit in federal court.</p>
<p>I'll answer only the second piece.</p>
<p>There is not an automatic exclusionary rule to exclude the admission of evidence illegally obtained by a private individual in a federal civil lawsuit in the way that such evidence would be automatically excluded from evidence in a criminal case if it was obtained illegally by law enforcement.</p>
<p>Instead, the court applies a balancing test on a case by case basis, weighing the circumstances that render the obtaining of the evidence illegal against the probative value of the evidence to establishing a disputed evidentiary fact in the case. The federal judge has fairly wide discretion to admit or exclude illegally obtained evidence in a federal civil lawsuit.</p>
