Posted: 10/26/2010 8:49:55 PM EDT
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MN is a one party consent
Recordings cannot be used for criminal or tortious intent. criminal I understand(bribery, etc) i'm not understanding about tortious intent. Can i get some basic examples? Story with questions Landlord records conversations with tenants(mostly the problem ones) to cover his ass if they get into a heated argument and they claim he said this and that. landlord catches tenant in a lie(current story different from recording). Landlord tells about recording, tenant gets lawyer, lawyer says he wants the recording and says its illegal to record without all parties consent. landlord smashes tape in front of tenant. end of story He tells me about this and I said to my knowledge you only need one party to consent and its legal to record coversations, uness his managment prohibits it I don't see an expectation of privacy issue being they are in the landlors office, and even with doors closed, the landlord is a consenting party to the recording. If its legal to record coversations if you are a consenting party, can you use the recordings to catch tenants lying and use that to infraction them?(lying about income, etc)(thinking Tortious intent might be part of this) Hope this makes sense. |
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A "tortious intent" basically means an intent to cause harm. If I were to punch you in the face, I could be pursued for criminal assault and civilly for tortious assault and battery. It's not always that simple, because not all torts are that obvious. If you are a party to a conversation, you can record that conversation. Period, end of story. There will be no liability, criminal or otherwise, for making the recording. Now if you use the recording to harm someone, i.e, blackmail, etc., that would be criminal and maybe a civil tort as well. A landlord who records his conversation with a tenant and uses that recording, in a legal manner, to protect his interests as landlord should not worry about any kind of liability.* *DISCLAIMER: Yes, I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer and the above is not really legal advise. Everybody's situation is different and the above may be completely wrong given the facts above or other facts unrevealed at time that this post was made. I'm only licensed in Ohio. if you have questions, consult a competent lawyer within your jurisdiction. |