What the law actually allows
Electronic Snooping & Divorce Lawyers in Chicago, IL
Evidence obtained illegally can cost you the case it was meant to win.
Chicago · Cook County · All of Illinois
I.The Matter
A spouse who suspects infidelity or hidden assets is often tempted to find proof directly: reading texts, installing tracking software, recording a conversation. In Illinois, several of those methods are criminal offenses, not just ethically gray, and evidence gathered that way can be suppressed or turned into sanctions against the person who collected it. Arami Law advises clients on what the law actually allows, and represents clients on both sides when it was ignored.
Illinois’ Eavesdropping Law and Recorded Conversations
Illinois is an all-party-consent state under 720 ILCS 5/14-2: recording a conversation, in person or by phone, without the consent of everyone on the call is a criminal offense, not merely inadmissible evidence. A spouse who secretly records the other, even inside their own home, can face felony exposure over and above losing the ability to use the recording in court.
Reading a Spouse’s Texts, Email, and Accounts
Accessing a spouse’s phone, email, or other accounts without authorization, even with a known or guessed password, can violate Illinois computer-tampering law and federal statutes governing unauthorized access to electronic communications. Being married to someone, and even owning the device, does not create legal authorization to access their private accounts.
Spyware, Keyloggers, and GPS Trackers
Installing tracking software or a GPS device on a spouse’s phone or vehicle without consent can violate Illinois’ stalking statute, 720 ILCS 5/12-7.5, which specifically covers electronic surveillance. This exposure exists independent of the divorce case itself and does not disappear simply because the parties are already separated.
What Happens to Improperly Obtained Evidence
Evidence gathered through eavesdropping, unauthorized account access, or covert tracking is frequently excluded from the case, and the party who obtained it can face sanctions, fee-shifting, and, in serious instances, referral for criminal prosecution. What felt like proof at the time can become the other side’s strongest argument.
How to Actually Get the Evidence, Lawfully
Everything a spouse is tempted to obtain by snooping is generally available lawfully through formal discovery: document requests, interrogatories, and subpoenas to banks, employers, and service providers. It takes longer than reading a text message over someone’s shoulder, but it holds up, and it does not expose the client to criminal risk in the process.
When Snooping Surfaces in a High-Conflict Custody Case
Digital surveillance disputes come up often in already-contentious custody litigation, where one parent accuses the other of monitoring devices or accounts shared with a child. Guardians ad litem and courts take these allegations seriously, and how a client responds to being surveilled, or defends against the accusation, affects credibility on every other contested issue in the case.
Legally reviewed byKourosh Arami, Esq.Founding Attorney · Chicago-Kent College of Law · 21 years of Illinois family law practiceEditorial Policy
Retained by
- Spouses who discover they were covertly monitored or recorded
- Spouses concerned they may have already crossed a legal line while gathering evidence
- Parties facing sanctions or evidence exclusion tied to improperly obtained material
- High-conflict custody cases involving disputed digital surveillance
From the Library
Arami Law serves clients across Chicago, Cook County, and the collar counties, including the North Shore communities of Winnetka, Wilmette, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Evanston, and Lake Forest.
II.The Approach
Prepared as if it will be tried.
Assess the exposure
Before anything else, we determine what was actually done, and whether it created criminal or evidentiary exposure that needs to be managed immediately.
Protect what can be protected
Where a client was the target, we move to exclude improperly obtained material and pursue sanctions against the party who obtained it.
Redirect to lawful discovery
Whatever the snooping was trying to prove is usually obtainable through a properly issued discovery request or subpoena instead.
Try the credibility fight
Surveillance disputes become credibility disputes, especially in custody cases. We prepare for that fight as carefully as any other contested hearing.
III.Questions
Electronic snooping in divorce, answered.
IV.The Inquiry
Submit your matter for confidential review.
The firm accepts a limited number of matters each year. Kourosh personally reviews every inquiry, in confidence.
Prefer to speak directly? (312) 212-1399
Serving Chicago, Cook County, and all of Illinois.