At work, we spend much time every day, so much so that it can even be more than the time we spend with family at home. Therefore, if there is workplace harassment, the laws are on our side.
Mental and emotional exhaustion can be impactful and even cause potentially life-threatening illnesses. Harassment is part of it and can take the form of threats, intimidation, deception and other forms of aggression where we want to stop what is happening, but the vast majority of the time we don't know what to do.
When desperately seeking a solution, we believe that recording with our phone to provide evidence to our aggressor's boss or authorities may be an option, but is it legal to do so in the United States?
If you find yourself in this situation and need help determining if you have a case to take to court, contact Conexión Legal as soon as possible by calling 1800 201 1220 or write to us through WhatsApp, we will offer you the best free legal advice and, likewise, we will help you connect with an ethical and reliable employment attorney who can handle your case in the best way and help you obtain the highest compensation that the Law can grant you for the damages.
Most states have wiretapping laws that establish rules on whether people need permission from others to legally record them. For example, New York has a "one-party consent" state, which means that in New York, you can record conversations in which you participate without having to ask permission from other people in the conversation.
Therefore, before deciding to record a phone or in-person conversation to prove workplace harassment, harassment, workplace abuse or "mobbing," it is important to carefully check the laws of the state where all participants are located, because even if one of the people is located in the state of New York and others are located in different states with "two-party consent" laws, you may end up violating state laws in these places and the act may prove counterproductive.
Additionally, the Federal Wiretapping Law (Title 18, Section 2511 of the U.S. Wiretapping Law) may also prohibit recording in a private setting where other people in the conversation want to record it in a private setting. Similarly, recording videos of other people can create legal problems. For these reasons, you should seek legal advice before recording without the permission of others.
It should be noted that, in general, you should not record conversations that you are not part of, as this can have very serious legal consequences for those who do so.
Testimonies from colleagues can be helpful, but they are not always easy to obtain due to fear of retaliation. Therefore, the first recommendation is to keep all evidence we have, both the harassment itself, such as emails, WhatsApp messages, recordings, etc., as well as the damages, medical, psychological or psychiatric reports, among others.
With regard to recording, the question arises as to whether it is legal to record our participation in a conversation in which workplace harassment is being exercised against us to provide it as evidence in court without the consent or knowledge of the other party. The answer is yes.
To expose the alleged offense of another person, there is this technique in which a person records the conversation in which they participate called self-recording or automatic debugging. Through this, the communication is recorded with the knowledge of one interlocutor, while the other interlocutor is unaware of the situation without mediation by public authorities.
Thus, if you deem it necessary or have doubts about collecting the evidence you need to take legal action that will compensate you and stop the workplace harassment you are suffering, you should contact Conexión Legal as soon as possible, our specialists will provide you with free legal advice immediately, in addition to connecting you with an employment attorney with whom you can win your case and in this way you obtain the highest possible compensation.
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