One-party and all-party consent
One-party consent means one person on the call consents to the recording. All-party consent, sometimes called two-party consent, means everyone on the call consents. Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2511) is one-party.
All-party consent states for phone calls
| State | Phone-call note |
|---|---|
| California | All-party. California's Supreme Court applied this to an out-of-state business recording calls with California residents (Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney, 2006). |
| Connecticut | All-party for phone calls. |
| Delaware | Treated as all-party. Delaware's statutes conflict, so the cautious reading is all-party. |
| Florida | All-party. |
| Illinois | All-party for private conversations. |
| Maryland | All-party. |
| Massachusetts | All-party. |
| Michigan | All-party for recordings by someone outside the call. Courts have let a participant record, but many firms treat Michigan as all-party to be safe. |
| Montana | All-party. |
| Nevada | All-party for phone calls. The Nevada Supreme Court read its one-party statute as requiring everyone's consent (Lane v. Allstate, 1998). |
| New Hampshire | All-party. |
| Pennsylvania | All-party. |
| Washington | All-party. |
One-party for phone calls, with caveats
| State | Phone-call note |
|---|---|
| Missouri | One-party for phone calls. All-party for private in-person conversations. |
| Oregon | One-party for phone calls. In-person rules are stricter. |
| Hawaii | One-party for phone calls. Stricter rules for recording in private places. |
| Maine | One-party for phone calls. Stricter rules for recording in private places. |
| Vermont | No state statute. The federal one-party rule applies. |
Every other state and DC: one-party consent for phone calls.
Calls across state lines
When the firm and caller are in different states, the stricter state's law may apply. The California note above gives an example: California's Supreme Court applied its rule to an out-of-state business recording calls with California residents in Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney (2006).
The common, safe practice is a short notice at the start of the call that the call is recorded.
How firstcase handles it
- When your firm's address is in an all-party consent state, the firstcase agent tells callers at the start of the call that it is recorded.
- If you take calls from callers in all-party states, review your setup with your counsel and with us.