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Child Abuse Hearsay for the Family Law Practitioner
Florida Statutes § 90.803(23) provides a hearsay exception for statements of children with a mental, developmental, or emotional level of 11 or less describing any act of child abuse or neglect. This includes, any act of sexual abuse against a child, the offense of aggravated child abuse, the offense of child abuse, or any offense involving the unlawful sexual act, contact, intrusion, or penetration performed in the presence of, with, or on the declarant child. These statements are admissible in both criminal and civil proceedings, including dissolution of marriage proceedings and civil...
Recording Conversations Can Be Illegal
Have you ever had a client come to you with the idea of secretly recording a conversation? Or worse yet, bring you a tape they surreptitiously made? Florida Security of Communications Act, Chapter 934 of the Florida Statutes, recognizes that oral, electronic, and wire communications are private, unless both parties consent, and cannot be recorded, absent a specific statutory exception. The legislative intent behind this statute is to safeguard the privacy of innocent people to prevent unauthorized interception of these communications. Fl.St. § 934.01(4). The purpose of this article is to...