Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Massachusetts

Re: Information obtained by misrepresentation

Assuming the case was in litigation when you got the defendant's admissions, your friend the litigant can almost certainly NOT use the information, especially if the defendant who you got it from is represented by counsel. When a party to litigation is represented, no other party, or anyone doing a party's bidding, should speak to the represented opposing party about the issues involved in the case. All contact concerning the matters at issue must, instead, go through that party's lawyer. Otherwise people would be doing this all the time, constantly setting traps designed to trick the unknowing party and benefit the other party in the litigation.

If your friend wanted to use the information as evidence in the case, s/he cannot do so, even though YOU did it instead of your friend, the plaintiff. The old saying is, "a party may not do INdirectly that whish s/he cannot do DIRectly." By seeking to take advantage of the information you got from the defendant in these circumstances, the court would essentially view it as though the plaintiff sought to obtain the prohibited information INdirectly (through you), which is not allowed. Again, otherwise this would be happening all the time.

The courts simply would never hear the evidence under the circumstances in which it was obtained, because to do so would reward the kind of sneaky trap-setting and game playing, designed to influence the result of litigation. Now if the defendant told what he told you publicly - like to the Boston Globe or posted it on his website (w/out prompting from any oputside influences tricking him into doing so), that would be a different story. But inducing a party to say/do things to be used as a litigation advantege is inappropriate.

In fact, if anything, the law discourages such shenanigans through criminal penalties for things like obstruction of justice, witness tampering and manipulation of pending litigation, etc., if the conduct was significant enough to cross the lines of those laws, prohibiting underhanded gamesmanship. Not only should your friend not try to use the information, you should say nothing about it beyond this posting b/c, in the right circumstances, you might have broken the law.

leaked to the defendant, and he took it to the judge, your friend could be severely sanctioned if s/he knew or should have known of your conduct and permitted it to occur (in hopes his/her case might benefit from it). Court sanctions range from minor fines, to the total dismissal of the case against the sanctioned party. The courts will not permit a scoundrel to use to the courts for untoward purposes. Your friend's case could be summarily dismissed as a sanction, forfeitting his/her legal rights due to untoward litigation conduct.

The legal system is not a game.

: Information obtained by misrepresentation

I think the question is improper for this forum.