I've been checking my cheating spouses voicemail at work for the last month, and the other party has been leaving messages. is it illegal to do this?

Well yes it could (key word could depeding on a number of things) be illegal assumming its being done without your husband's permission....but your point is?

I mean your marriage is much more important than the remote possibility of some petty misdemeanor charge I don't think any district attorney would seriously prosecute.

Besides I don't think your husband or the OW would have the nerve to press charges because then it would come out in court why you were illegally listening to his voice mail.

By the way its also illegal in most states to committ adultery as well.

I don't think any district attorney would seriously prosecute.
But the company may very likely sue. You are not an employee and have no business with the company requiring you to use their system.

But the same goes for the ow and your husband. If he is using it for personal messages, he could get the boot.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by stunned-dad-fast recovering:
<strong> Well yes it could (key word could depeding on a number of things) be illegal assumming its being done without your husband's permission....but your point is?

I mean your marriage is much more important than the remote possibility of some petty misdemeanor charge I don't think any district attorney would seriously prosecute.

Besides I don't think your husband or the OW would have the nerve to press charges because then it would come out in court why you were illegally listening to his voice mail.

By the way its also illegal in most states to committ adultery as well. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">It wouldn't have to be the H or the OW pressing charges-if anyone else at the company finds out, they would have no reason not to press charges and may need to in order to prevent themselves from facing liability.

I work at an agency that is covered by HPPA. It is possible to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and up to ten years in a federal prison for violating patient privacy. If Anyisha's H works for a company covered by HPPA and she listens to 30 messages containing medical or insurance info while hunting for messages from OW, that could mean $30,000 in fines. Other businesses may be covered by other laws.

Its all very well for you to tell Anyisha to go ahead with this-you won't be the one in the slammer or deeply in debt if it backfires on her.

Anyisha-consult a real attorney before you do anything that could get you in trouble. If you have reason to believe your H and OW are misusing their voice mail, report it to his boss and let the company take care of it.

And for Heaven's sake, people, keep in mind innocent parties who expect confidentiality and who can be harmed by all this snooping in the name of protecting one's marriage. I am sorry if Anyisha's H is playing around on her, but if I have confidential dealings with him and leave messages on his voicemail, I don't want unauthorized people listening to it. I shouldn't have to pay for his mistakes.

<small>[ February 17, 2004, 11:20 AM: Message edited by: elspeth ]</small>

HPPA laws apply to a very small medical related area.

And HPPA forbades any licensed care giver or their staff from violating privacies laws. She is not subject to those laws unless she is actually licensed caregiver or an employee of a licensed caregiver.

Secondly HPPA laws specifically forbid ANY information that may violate patient privacy from being issued over common phone lines. Take a close look at the incoming call from say a licensed therapist. The first thing you will note the phone line the call came from is blocked, you will only see "unknown" on your caller ID. Secondly if you answer in person they will only say who they are---the clerk only NOT the doctor. Any other words they will not remind you of your appointment with Dr. So and So only to remind you of your appointment with NO mention of even the doctor's name. Same applies to your answering machine....ie this is clerk so and so reminding you of your appointment at X time with "the" doctor--who will not be named in the message.

If any company is routinely leaving patient information on even internal phone line based voice mail system they have so violated HPPA that they would be best served by not exposing their own HPPA violations.

It doesn't matter how small a group is covered by HPPA if Anyisha's H is one of them. Did you even bother to ask?

We were talking about listening messages left on his voice mail-i.e, messages coming in, not going out. Suppose Alyisha's H is a doctor, or nurse, or X-ray tech, or insurance agent-aren't patients perfectly free legally to leave messages like, "Hi, this is Jane Doe, I'm worried because I haven't received the results of my pregnancy test yet. Please call me"? Or, "This is Sam Smith. I need my oxycotin prescrition refilled-I can drop by at 2 to pick it up if you can have it ready for me." Or "Does my policy cover elective abortions?"

Of course, if spouses and others can hack into voice mail with impunity, maybe I should confine any messages I leave for my doc in the future to "This is Jane Doe. Please call me back."

he's not in the health care profession, i just wanted to know the truth, and accumulate the information to present to him.

Well, you can write down the facts and present him with them, without revealing your source. Keeping him in the dark about your access to his voice mail might also be handy in the future.