DuPage County Divorce Lawyer Blog
Editor’s Note: In December, 2014, Illinois Governor Quinn signed into law a revised version of the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute. The constitutionality of the new law has not yet been challenged.
On March 20, 2014, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute, 720 ILCS 5/14-1, et seq. , as unconstitutional. See People v. Clark, 2014 IL 115776; People v. Melongo, 2014 IL 114852. Generally speaking, that law made it a crime to make an audio recording of another person without their consent, subject to certain exceptions. Worse, the statute rendered any evidence obtained in violation of its provisions inadmissible in any civil or criminal trial. 720 ILCS 5/14-5.
From an evidentiary perspective, the probative value of an audio recording of a person’s own words, spoken aloud in his or her own voice, cannot be underestimated. As such, in the context of family, the old Eavesdropping statute deprived litigants and their divorce attorneys of potentially valuable evidence. Thus, the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision is a decidedly positive development in the law.
To illustrate, suppose that George and Mary are about to file for divorce. They are home on an otherwise quiet evening. George is sitting on the couch, watching TV. Mary is getting ready for bed. Earlier in the day, however, they had argued extensively. George accused Mary’s family of unnecessarily meddling in their household affairs. Mary blamed George. She felt that if George would simply act more responsibly, her family wouldn’t have to get involved. Though they had stopped arguing hours ago, they were at an uneasy state of peace.