Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: How do I get a recorded call admitted as evidence ?

You say that the recording complies with the law, but you need to be very careful here. Unless the employee knew he was being recorded, recording the conversation was not just illegal but actually criminal. The recording would not be admissible in your trial under any circumstances, and you could end up being prosecuted for making it. The tape would be admissible against you in such a prosecution.

Assuming the employee consented to the recording, there are ways you could use the tape. You are correct that the taped statements are hearsay, but there are exceptions to the hearsay rule and some of those exceptions should help you.

One of these exceptions is for admissions against the party's or the witness's interests. If the employee was speaking on the company's behalf (as opposed to just talking on his own time) then his statements are the company's. If, at the time they were made, the statements tended to harm the company's interests then you could use them. This won't work, though, if he was just talking to you on his own and not as part of his job. Statements he makes on his own are not statements by the company and cannot therefore cannot be held against the company. You could still use them if they went against his interests personally, but they would also have to go against the company's interests to be useful to you.

Another exception that should work for you applies to prior inconsistent statements. If this employee testifies (in response either to your questions or to the company's) and says something contrary to what you recorded, then you can impeach him with the recording or you can testify about it yourself when you are on the stand and have it admitted then. If the employee was talking to you on the company's behalf, then you can do this even if a different employee is the one who offers the contrary testimony. But even if he was speaking in his individual capacity, you can still put him (*not* a fellow employee) on the stand, ask him about the issues he was discussing and, if he says something different from what you recorded, the tape would be admissible as a prior inconsistent statement.

Re: How do I get a recorded call admitted as evidence ?

There isn't too much I could add to the prior response except a little personal experience. I also used taped evidence while acting as an in pro. per. plaintiff. I didn't have a legality problem, because they were the defendant's own tapes, made by the defendant, a public agency, at its own public meetings. However, there is a practical presentation problem when you are both witness, attorney and audio-visual technician at the same time! Give a lot of advance thought and preparation to whose tape player will be used, where it can be plugged in in the courtroom, how you will "cue up" the exact tape portions to be played, how you authenticate each voice heard, etc. Find out if there are local rules covering playing of audiotapes. Do you need a transcript?