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Southern Wiretap Ruling May Affect New Yorkers

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

Because so many New York residents have strong ties to Florida and other southern states through second homes and relatives, New York family law attorneys should be aware that a recent decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has altered precedent concerning wiretap legality in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. The case, Glazner v. Glazner, No. 02-11799 (11th Cir. 10/16/03), involved an Alabama husband who, although he had filed for divorce, continued to live with his wife. Because he suspected her of having an affair, he put a recording device on the telephone in the family home. The wife discovered the device and later brought suit against her husband in federal court, claiming he violated her rights under the federal wiretap law by recording her telephone conversations without consent.

Until Glazner, the leading precedent on wiretapping of family telephones in Florida, Alabama and Georgia was Simpson v. Simpson, 490 F.2d 803. (Simpson did not apply to other states in the Eleventh Circuit because it was issued when Florida, Georgia and Alabama were still part of the Fifth Circuit, from which the Eleventh Circuit was formed in 1981. Fifth-Circuit decisions that predate creation of the Eleventh Circuit are binding on the Eleventh Circuit.) Simpson held that Congress, in enacting its 1968 anti-wiretap law, did not intend to prohibit family members from listening in to conversations on extension phones in the home, so absent promulgation of state law on the issue, such “eavesdropping,” was perfectly legal.

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