Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Massachusetts

Re: Electronic eavesdropping

I don't know if the act of eavesdropping is illegal, but I suspect not. I'm familiar with a case when we first had hand-held remote phones in people's homes and the police (who are MORE restricted than average citizens, in some senses) had eavesdropped on a drug dealer and their evidence (and fruits of the bust they made) was deemed admissible. Why? Because privacy rights are based upon "reasonable expectation of privacy" which means that you lose your rights if, for example, you're talking to someone privately but in a public place or with others in the room, or, in this case, by some means that uses public airwaves which any hacker can pick up.

Next issue which you have not raised is this: was it legal for this person to spread the information garnered? That may have been a civil (non-criminal) offense. Please write this additional information: WHAT your wife said, WHO the eavesdropping neighbor relayed it to, and WHY he did that (-- was it malicious or not? Truth is not an absolute defense in Massachusetts). I imagine you want to do this privately; you can mail me directly at [email protected] with the information. Frankly, ironically, you should be aware that e-mail messages are technically not secure communications and clearly not protected this way (although as a lawyer, I'm bound to keep your secrets!), so an e-mail spy in theory could get hold of your message to me! My guess is that it's highly unlikely. (I do have PGP encryption; if you are set up to use it on your end, we could hook that up.) Alternatively, send me a fax to (617) 527-1763.