Federal and State Wiretapping Laws

The U.S. 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 and territories have adopted wiretapping statutes based on the federal law, although most have also extended the law to cover in-person conversations. 38 states and the D.C. permit recording telephone conversations to which they are a party without informing the other parties that they are doing so.

12 states require, under most circumstances, the consent of all parties to a conversation. Those jurisdictions are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.

It is illegal under all jurisdictions to record calls in which one is not a party.

A complete state-by-state set of regulations regarding telephone call recording may be obtained in the following report published by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:

http://www.rcfp.org/taping/states.html

Louisiana

Unless a criminal or tortious purpose exists, a person can record any conversations transmitted by wire, oral or electronic means to which he is a party, or when one participating party has consented. A violation of the law, whether by recording or disclosing the contents of a communication without proper consent, carries a fine of not more than $10,000 and jail time of not less than two and not more than 10 years at hard labor. La. Rev. Stat. § 15:1303.

Civil damages are expressly authorized as well. Actual damages can be recovered — minimum damages in any case will be the greater of $100 a day for each day of violation or $1,000 — along with punitive damages, litigation costs and attorney fees. La. Rev. Stat. § 15:1312.

The use of any type of hidden camera to observe or record a person where that person has not consented is illegal if the recording “is for a lewd or lascivious purpose.” La. Rev. Stat. § 14:283.

The Court of Appeal of Louisiana for the Second Circuit held that a wife’s secretly-recorded telephone conversations with her husband on her own telephone were not illegally intercepted since the calls were recorded by a party to the conversation. Brown v. Brown, 877 So.2d 1228 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

References:

1. United States Telephone Recording Laws
   Legal Aspects of Recording Telephone Conversations: A Practical Guide
2. "Can We Tape?" A Practical Guide to Taping Phone Calls and In-Person Conversations