Program Details
2027-01-14 12:00:00
Over 1,000+ webinars
Course Overview
2027-01-14 12:00:00
1.5h CLE Credits
Intermediate
1.5
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm ESTThis 90-minute session covers both halves of the problems a family lawyer faces when a client arrives with a recording they already made: a phone call with a spouse, a confrontation at a custody exchange, or a child talking to the other parent. The first part covers what the recording costs. Attorneys will learn why the federal Wiretap Act, a one-party consent statute, generally permits a recording made by a participant, and how 18 U.S.C. §§ 2511 and 2520 create felony exposure and statutory damages of $10,000 or $100 per day when the client intercepts conversations they were not part of, through spyware, a device left recording, or a child’s calls with the other parent; how the all-party consent states (including California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington) make the client’s own recording the problem; how Illinois’ eavesdropping statute, after People v. Clark, People v. Melongo and the 2014 amendments, makes surreptitiously recording a private conversation a felony, bars the recording as evidence and gives the other party a civil claim for actual and punitive damages; the exemptions that matter most in family cases, including Illinois’ exemption for recording under a reasonable suspicion of a crime against the client or a household member, and whether a custody exchange in a public place is a private conversation at all; when the vicarious consent doctrine protects a parent recording a child and when it fails, and how the use-and-disclosure provisions reach the attorney who uses the recording. The second part covers what to do about it: the intake questions to ask before anyone presses play, preservation duties and the spoliation sanctions for deleting or altering a recording, when to retain a forensic examiner and what a defensible copy looks like, authentication and the attacks the other side will bring, motions in limine and the statutory suppression remedy under § 2515, and Model Rules 3.4, 4.4 and 8.4 as applied to a recording obtained unlawfully, with notes on where state versions of those rules differ. Attendees will leave with a working protocol for advising the client, protecting the file, and getting the recording in or keeping it out of the divorce or custody case.
Jonathan D. SteeleJonathan D. Steele is a partner at Beermann LLP in Chicago, where his divorce and family law practice includes digital evidence and privacy issues: text messages, shared accounts, family devices, location data and electronic financial records, what those records may show, how to preserve them, and when shared access or device monitoring raises privacy or safety concerns. He pursued cybersecurity credentials after seeing how monitoring, account access and digital evidence complicate divorce cases. He handles divorce, custody and parenting time, orders of protection and post-decree disputes through negotiation and trial, along with property division, maintenance, child support and parental responsibilities. More about Mr. Steele’s work, including his digital evidence and privacy practice, can be found at steelefamlaw.com.
Jonathan D. Steele is a partner at Beermann LLP in Chicago, where his divorce and family law practice includes digital evidence and privacy issues: text messages, shared accounts, family devices, location data and electronic financial records, what those records may show, how to preserve them, and when shared access or device monitoring raises privacy or safety concerns. He pursued cybersecurity credentials after seeing how monitoring, account access and digital evidence complicate divorce cases. He handles divorce, custody and parenting time, orders of protection and post-decree disputes through negotiation and trial, along with property division, maintenance, child support and parental responsibilities. More about Mr. Steele’s work, including his digital evidence and privacy practice, can be found at steelefamlaw.com.
Requirements
The Alabama State Bar MCLE Commission requires attorneys to complete 12 credits, including 1 ethics, by December 31 of each year. All credits must be reported by February 15 of the following year. A maximum of 12 credits, including 1 ethics credit, may be carried over for 1 year only.
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