What Does Federal and State Law Say About Phone Call Recording?
Federal law allows recording of phone calls and other electronic communications with the consent of at least one party to the call. A majority of the states in this country have adopted wiretapping statutes based on the federal law, although most also have extended the law to cover in-person conversations as well as phone conversations. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia allow the recording of conversations to which they are a party without informing the other parties that they are doing so. These are known as “single-party consent” statutes, and as long as you are a party to the conversation, it is legal for you to record it. Despite Federal law and the “single-party consent” statutes of the majority of states, twelve states require the consent of all parties to a conversation. This is known as “dual-party consent.” Obviously, under these same laws, if there are more than two people involved in the conversation, all must consent to the taping. The twelve dual-party conse
