The Divorce Client Who Wants Everything
An attorney hires your licensed agency to investigate a contentious divorce. The client believes her estranged husband is hiding cash from his flooring business and is having an affair. She provides the husband's home address, his 2021 Ford F-150, and his iCloud username and password. She asks you to: (1) clip a magnetic GPS tracker under the truck's rear bumper and monitor it for 30 days; (2) fly a small drone 40 feet over the husband's six-foot privacy fence to photograph the backyard and pool area; (3) use the iCloud credentials to download call logs and texts; and (4) sit in a booth at a restaurant and record the husband's conversation with his girlfriend at the next table. The budget is $4,000. The client says, 'It's all legal because I'm his wife.' You must decide which methods to use and which to refuse.
1. Which of the four requested methods may you use, and which must you refuse? Explain the consent, privacy, and computer-access issues.
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Refuse all four as proposed. (1) GPS: attaching a tracker to a vehicle you do not own or lawfully control, without consent or legal process, risks trespass to chattels and stalking allegations; a spouse's general consent is not authorization to secretly track the husband's separate vehicle. (2) Drone: flying over a fenced backyard and pool area at low altitude intrudes on curtilage and a reasonable expectation of privacy; commercial drone operation also carries FAA certification and airspace obligations. (3) iCloud: using his credentials to download messages and call logs is unauthorized access to electronic communications and a computer system, even if the wife supplied the password; shared marital status does not equal legal authority. (4) Restaurant recording: Pennsylvania's Wiretap Act generally requires at least one party's consent, and you are not a party to the husband's conversation. Recording a private conversation from the next booth without consent is unlawful interception. The wife's statement that 'it's all legal because I'm his wife' is not a legal analysis and does not cure these problems.
2. What lawful alternatives should you propose to the attorney and client?
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Propose public-source and consensual methods: asset searches through public records, corporate filings, liens, and property records; surveillance from public vantage points of activity visible in public; interviews of witnesses who consent to speak; photography from public sidewalks or other lawful locations; and requests for documents through the attorney's subpoena power or signed authorizations. If the wife has a legitimate joint account or device, the attorney should determine her legal authority before any access, and preferably obtain the husband's consent or a court order. The goal is to give the attorney admissible, defensible information rather than a dramatic but suppressible recording.
3. How should you document your refusal and communicate it to the client?
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Put the advice in writing: identify each requested method, state that it was declined and why, and list the lawful alternatives you will use. Send it to the hiring attorney, not just the client, because the attorney is the client for the engagement and may need to address the client's expectations. Document the date, time, and persons involved. Keep the tone professional and avoid accusing the client of wrongdoing. If the client insists on an unlawful method, decline the engagement or withdraw in writing. This record protects the agency, supports the attorney's ethical obligations, and preserves the client relationship for lawful work.