Can I record conversations?

[Ajilon]

CP: Alabama
NCP: Pennsylvania

Problem: NCP conducting inappropriate conversations with my child, committing acts of slander and negatively influencing my child by stating allegations and false accusations. Can I record telephone conversations between them? I looked on the net and I'm not coming up with a whole lot that says I can grant permission on behalf of my child. AL follows the federal law and is a single consent state, however, PA is a All Party consent state. The case will be heard in AL.

Any advice on this subject would be very helpful!
Thanks!
Ajilon

[socrateaser]

>CP: Alabama
>NCP: Pennsylvania
>
>Problem: NCP conducting inappropriate conversations with my
>child, committing acts of slander and negatively influencing
>my child by stating allegations and false accusations. Can I
>record telephone conversations between them? I looked on the
>net and I'm not coming up with a whole lot that says I can
>grant permission on behalf of my child. AL follows the federal
>law and is a single consent state, however, PA is a All Party
>consent state. The case will be heard in AL.

Obviously, you could ask an AL family law attorney. In order for me to give you a definitive answer, I'd have to research AL statutes and case law (and you'd have to pay me). I've read the summary of the law at rfcp.org, but it's not sufficiently precise.

If it were just you and the other parent in the coversation, I'd say fine, but whether the child can consent is largely up to whether a judge would believe that the child is capable of "voluntarily and knowingly" understanding the purpose of the tape recording "under the totality of the circumstances," which would include considering the child's age and maturity -- something I can't evaluate from this vantage point.