When a married couple goes through a divorce, there may be suspicions about what your spouse is doing behind your back. These issues often relate to a divorce settlement, so it is only natural that you may want to spy on your wife or husband. The following is a quick guideline as to what is and is not allowed.
Recording Your Spouse Outside of the Home
There are many laws regarding what you can and cannot do here. In general, you need to look at whether your spouse has an expectation of privacy. Certainly, anything that is taking place on public property is not going to be a problem, but it is when people are on private property that things can be tricky. For example, If your spouse is seen with another person on an outside patio of a restaurant, it is most likely legal to record, as there can be no expectation of privacy.
On the other hand, inside of a restaurant might be illegal. It would depend upon how many people were in the restaurant and the specific state laws that are applicable. Knowledge of the laws regarding public surveillance is as important as the skills in recording someone’s behavior.
Recording Your Spouse Inside of Your Home
Too often a person will jump to conclusions about the legality of recording in their own home. However, there are privacy rights that are afforded your spouse, and for that matter, even guests in your home. In general, if you record video with no sound, you will be all right, but there are exceptions. If you record audio, you are likely to run up against the law.
If you’re looking for evidence of an affair, this is not likely to be of concern because they often take place outside of the home. If you do suspect this is happening, you need to contact a professional private investigator. Whatever the situation may be, getting legal evidence that you can use in a divorce is something best left to a professional.
Tracking the Movements of Your Spouse
If you know how to use modern global positioning systems (GPS), attaching a tracking device to a car is easily done. This is usually not legal though, unless the car belongs to you. If the car is in both of your names, it may still be legal, but it will be dependent upon the laws in your state.
The same is true with tracking the movement of your spouse’s smartphone. Often, the phone will need to be on the same service plan that you use. If so, a tracking app can be loaded onto the phone. This, of course, will track the movement of the phone and not necessarily your spouse.
As you can see, the legalities can be a problem all by themselves. When you add to this the skill needed for successful surveillance, it is clearly better to have this type of work done professionally. If there is possible evidence that can be gathered to help you in a divorce settlement, contact us today. This will make sure the job is done properly and your divorce case is not compromised.
Bruce Robertson
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