San Diego Divorce Attorneys Blog

When is it permissible to record a phone call or video of the other party?

This is a question that comes up a lot in family law. Sometimes a party wants to record another party making a threat or acting violently. Other times, one spouse wants to secretly record a devastating admission of his or her spouse. This type of evidence can really bolster a case, as long as it’s admissible.

The lead statute on this issue is California Penal Code section 632. This statute holds that anyone who “records [a] confidential communication” “intentionally and without the consent of all parties to the confidential communication,” is guilty of a crime. Accordingly, California is considered a “two-party” consent state. That means that all parties to any confidential communication must agree to the recording. This is different than say, Georgia. In Georgia, anyone can record a phone call without the consent or even the knowledge of any other party to the phone call.

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Vaccination proponents and those who are against mandatory vaccinations (often called “anti-vaxxers”) have been all over the news.  Celebrities and politicians have come out on both sides of the issue, making the debate very highly contested.  For the most part, the issue of whether or not to vaccinate children was largely a philosophical discussion.  This was especially true in child custody cases where parties shared joint legal custody.  Typically, one parent would want to have a child vaccinated and another parent would not.  The reasons for not wanting the vaccination could be medical, religious, or part of a philosophical objection often referred to as a personal belief exception.

This often left the court in the difficult spot of deciding whether the or not to order the vaccinations.  In these cases, the child’s doctor might recommend the vaccination, but if the objection was religious or philosophical how was the court to decide?

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