Silas v. Silas

In Silas v. Silas, 680 So. 2d 368, 372 (Ala. Civ. App. 1996), an Alabama court of civil appeals held that a father has the authority to vicariously consent to the recording of his child's telephone conversations under the federal wiretap laws. In Silas, the father recorded the telephone conversations between his minor child and his ex-wife while the minor child was at his house during visitation and after witnessing his child getting "extremely upset" and crying after talking with his ex-wife on the telephone. Id. at 371. The Alabama court held that the father had a good faith, objectively reasonable basis for suspecting "that the minor child was being abused, threatened, or intimidated by the mother," thereby adopting and applying the doctrine. Id. at 372.