Legal Question in Family Law in New York
Can tape recordings be used in a divorce preliminary hearing
My wife and her attorney recently filed her financial disclosure information full
of obvious errors and several unknowns such as the value of her car and her
pension, even though I had given her the information in the form of actual
printouts from KBB for the car and printouts from her 401k company. When I
questioned my wife she said her lawyer was stalling to keep her in the house
until October. Is this perjury because my wife signed in front of a notary that
this and a lot of other obviously false information was true? She even claimed
she had a car loan outstanding when her car was paid off. I got mad and called
her and her lawyer a bunch of bad names which unknown to me she was
recording. Will this be admissable?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Can tape recordings be used in a divorce preliminary hearing
1. While the inclusion of mis-information on the FC is punishable by perjury, the DA is unlikely to become involved under these facts. Some mis-information is almost expected and it is your burden to correct this information. Your attorney should have no problem based on these facts.
2. The recording is admissible because she was a participant in the call. However, it will be ruled inadmissible on objection on the basis of 'lack of relevence' or under CPLR 3401 as 'immaterial and prejudicial'. In the absence of threats, this is a meaningless event.
Your lawyer should be able to handle these matters easily.