Just because evidence was not lawfully obtained (ie. call recorded without other the other party's consent where that is requirement of state statute), doesn't necessarily mean that evidence can't be used to protect yourself against a more wide-ranging claim. The various precedents against the use of tainted evidence are mostly used in favor of a defendant and against the state.
A $50 misdemeanor fine for unlawfully recording a phone conversation, may well be a small price to pay - if the content of that recording can successfully protect you from a potentially bankrupting civil case.
And you always have the option of not disclosing the recording if that is your lawyer's recommended advice.
As someone who lives in Texas, I can confirm that Texas is a one-party state. I specifically do not need to inform people of recording devices if I am a party to the conversation.
It bothers me a lot when services, such as Google Voice, announce to all parties that such recording is occurring.
> It bothers me a lot when services, such as Google Voice, announce to all parties that such recording is occurring.
Google is based in California. There is a good probability that the act of recording occurs there. California is an all-party consent state. Also, even if the recording isn't happening in California, it's potentially tricky to be sure that no party to the call is in California (even numbers assigned to landlines don't assure that the person ultimately connecting is in a particular place.)
From my naive understanding and possible spotty recollection of the law(s) involved: in the US at least, as long as the recording party is in a one-party state then it doesn't matter where the other parties are located.
It's completely legal to record a phone call in Canada as long as you are a party to that conversation. However I still cannot find an app for my Android phone to do this.
I think it may be enough to play a beep every few seconds to indicate that the call is recorded. At least that's what a bank I used to work for would do when I called offices in a two-party state.
First, IANAL but I would be very surprised if beeps alone would be considered a legal notification of recording.
Second, those beeps probably exist to reinforce that the audio is unmolested. A beep every 5 seconds means you would have to cut audio in five-second increments, which is not likely to be convenient to whatever segment of audio you actually want to cut.
I mentioned it because someone working for a big organization and making a lot of interstate calls probably hears these beeps all day and would be less likely to protest than if someone verbally announced that they're recording the call.
Interesting... So seeing that it's a federal standard, now I wonder whether it is sufficient notification of recording...
If so, as you point out it seems like an interesting way to avoid having to announce the recording to those not knowledgeable.
EDIT: I don't know how reliable this site is, but it seems to indicate the recording beep is sufficient for notification, but not sufficient for consent, which makes sense.
It looks like the beep is sufficient for recording from a one-party state calling a two-party state, since federal law supercedes the other state's law. Actual consent would be required if the recorder is in a two-party state, even if the other party is in a one-party state. But even if the recording is "technically legal" without consent, using it as evidence in the two-party state could still be problematic. So I guess it wouldn't be a good idea to rely on the beep alone.
All of Canada is single party consent for recording. If you're the person doing the recording, you've consented, so you are good. Don't assume everyone that speaks English is in the US.
Just asking for a friend, but Pennsylvania and California are two-party recording states. Is there a statute of limitations after when releasing an undisclosed recording between a Pennsylvanian and a Californian would not be considered an offense?
Edit: looks like this could be possible without getting into trouble depending on the state you're in: http://lifehacker.com/5491190/is-it-legal-to-record-phone-ca...