Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: secret tape recording

Secret tape recording is illegal in California and a judge should not receive illegally-obtained evidence in a civil matter and must not in a criminal case.

The applicable law is Penal Code section 632.

Note that eavesdropping or recording without the consent of all parties is illegal (a misdemeanor) only if the victims had a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in the conversation. This is why businesses you telephone may announce "this conversation may be monitored or recorded for training (or quality control) purposes." When such an announcement is made, the caller is forewarned and no longer can claim to have had an expectation of privacy.

There is also probably no reasonable expectation of privacy in conversations that take place in a crowded public place like a busy store or restaurant.

So, secrecy and permission are not so much governing factors as is the so-called reasonable expectation of privacy.

Re: secret tape recording

Only if you don't mind being arrested and going to jail. It's illegal.

Re: secret tape recording

Making such a recording without the knowledge and consent of all participants is a crime unless the conversation took place under circumstances which would not give a reasonable person an expectation of privacy.

The recording would be inadmissible in your civil case, but it would be admissible against you if you are prosecuted for making it.