Is a recorded conversation allowed as evidence in court? Can a tape recorded conversation be used as evidence if one of the parties did not know he or she was being recorded? Also, what step should you take if you are being sued and the law suit is not legitimate and the other party has indicated that he or she will make you spend tens of thousands of dollars just to defend your case?

The answer to this question depends on several facts not mentioned so my answer is purposefully vague. Generally in Iowa, so long as one party to a conversation agrees for it to be recorded you can record a conversation with two or more people. What you can't do is set the recorder up to secretly record a conversation in which you aren't a party to. I can't secretly set up a recorder in an office, go to lunch and record conversations to which I'm not a party. If you have the consent of a person engaged in the conversation then it's permissible in some instances. I say in some instances because there is a recent story about a man being prosecuted in Illinois for secretly recording government officials and the police. Whether I agree with that law is not relevant, it appears to be the law in Illinois. In Iowa I have not researched that point so I offer no legal opinion on the matter. 
 

Is the lawsuit legitimate? Well, that depends on who you talk to. You assume it's not legitimate, but perhaps you aren't correct. I say that because you can't possibly know the law when you're not a lawyer or a judge. People think anytime they are sued that the case isn't legitimate, but those on the other side would disagree. And there are many instances where someone claimed they were sued in a 'bogus' case, but end up with a judgment against them. Emotions aside, this is America and our legal system is pretty open to many types of claims to which you and I may agree to disagree on whether or not public policy should allow such a suit, but they are still legitimate under the current state of the law. If you surreptitiously recorded a conversation turn it over to your lawyer and let the lawyers decide if what you have is valuable or worthless (illegal?) evidence. Better yet, before you record the conversations ask your lawyer if what you want to do is going to get you in trouble.  

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