Listening in on phone conversations

[Kent]

Soc,

Whenever I talk to my son on the phone, his mother is always listening in. A few minutes later she then calls me to "discuss" which parts of my conversation with him she does not like. Is she allowed to do this? GA is a one-party state.

Thank you.

Kent!

[mistoffolees]

>Soc,
>
>Whenever I talk to my son on the phone, his mother is always
>listening in. A few minutes later she then calls me to
>"discuss" which parts of my conversation with him she does not
>like. Is she allowed to do this? GA is a one-party state.
>
>Thank you.
>
>Kent!

I don't know about listening in, but I do know that the rules for recording are very different when there are minors involved. For example, in OK, it's OK to record your own conversations with any adult. It is NOT OK to record your conversations with minors without a court order.

[Kent]

Mist, she's not recording, she's just listening in.

At the house she picks up one of the other phones, if it's her cell phone, she puts it on speaker phone.

[mistoffolees]

I thought I made that clear - "I don't know about listening in, but I do know that the rules for recording are very different..."

My point was that the fact that your state allows recording or listening in with only one adult consenting may not be relevant because there's a child involved.

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.

[hagatha]

Kent,

I believe the answer to your question is Yes, she can listen right now. You are calling her house and/or her cell. She can do whatever she wants.

There are some things yoiu can do to rectify this situation though.

1st you can petition the court to order calls between you and son are private. This should be done while petitioning for more time or contempt.

2nd. When she calls back to "discuss" your conversation with son, you can hang up. Realisitically you don't Have to even answer the phone.

Now I know this will cause more friction, probably cause you to loose some phone time with your son, but then you get the contempt charge you need.

You are letting her control this situation by allowing this interaction, Stop ans she will go crazy. This could be a good thing.

The Witch

[MixedBag]

that his order probably doesn't say "supervised" parenting time.

Listening in like that is no different than supervised parenting time.

But I also like stop and she will go crazy.....many time this is the answer to situations.

[Tennessee Dad]

This is included in all custody orders in our state:  
 
 36-6-110. Rights of non-custodial parents. —
 
 (a)  Except when the juvenile court or other appropriate court finds it not to be in the best interests of the affected child, upon petition by a non-custodial, biological parent for whom parental rights have not been terminated, the court shall grant the following parental rights:
 
      (1)  The right to unimpeded telephone conversations with the child at least twice a week at reasonable times and for reasonable durations;

To me "unimpeded" means "not interferred with".  Check your orders and/or state law.  If they include similar rules, then point it out to BM, then simply hang up the phone.  Or suggest that from now on, you will be recording her when she calls you to "discuss" what has been said to son.  That ought to stop her; it works in our case, anyway.  
 

[mistoffolees]

I'm not sure about that definition. I would think 'unimpeded' means that they don't prevent the conversation - not that they can't listen in. I would check on local laws and practice.

[Tennessee Dad]

Well, Webster's definition says impede means "interfere with" thus unimpeded would generally mean not interfered with.  Listening in and then calling to rebut would be interferring to me .  JMHO

[mistoffolees]

But it wouldn't be 'interfere' to me. Interfere means to prevent something from happening. She didn't prevent it from happening, so she didn't interfere with it. To me, 'interfere' means she would have prevented the father from talking to the child(ren).

Of course, this will be regulated by state law, so our disagreement is irrelevant.