Wednesday, December 29, 2010

In Hot Water for Snooping (in spouse's email.)

Though the crime of illegal wiretapping is not a new concept, only recently has it received nationwide attention in the divorce and custody arena.  A Michigan man currently faces criminal charges for accessing his wife's email because he suspected she was having an extra-marital affair.  He faces incarceration if convicted.

Ohio law will make it illegal to "intercept" email which leaves open the argument that reading another's email may also constitute illegal interception of email.  Certainly the use of a program to "capture" email would be illegal.  Under Ohio law, the crime of Interception of Wire, Oral or Electronic Communications is a felony of the fourth degree and is punishable by up to 18 months in prison per occurrence. You can find it at R.C. 2933.52.  The issue is new to Ohio, but if you see the annotations to that code section, there is actually an entire category titled "cordless telephones and baby monitors and the like, interception." So, it is easy enough to imagine where the case law might lead.

To get a bigger picture of the law, understand that Ohio is considered a "one party" state.  So long as one party to the conversation is aware of the taping, it does not run afoul of the anti-wiretapping provisions of R.C. 2933.52.  Here is a nice state by state guide of wiretapping laws: http://www.rcfp.org/taping/states/ohio.html.  In fact, there have been instances where attorneys have been charged and convicted of federal crimes for using illegally recorded telephone conversations.  In the instance of one highly regarded attorney, the federal conviction was reversed entirely on appeal.   

To see more about the Michigan man in hot water over email snooping check out "Is snooping in your spouse's email a crime?" at the link below: http://today.msnbcmsn.com/id/26184891/vp/40827304#40827304



Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Divorce Misconduct Penalties

It only makes sense to start this blog with an issue of significance to everyone in a divorce dispute - full disclosure of assets.  Inevitably parties to a divorce case question whether the other spouse has been candid about the true extent of their assets.  This is alone can stall divorce settlement negotiations and cause the parties to spend needlessly on discovery and depositions to identify the true state of the assets.  In 2010, the Ohio General Assembly amended R.C. 3105.171 to impose significant penalties for a failure to disclose an asset of up to three times the value of the undisclosed asset.