Call recording consent

Call recording consent is the permission needed before a phone call is recorded. Depending on the state, the consent of one person on the call may be enough, or everyone on the call may need to agree.

General information for clinics in the United States. This is not legal advice; ask your own counsel how the rules apply to your clinic.

Clinics record calls for training, for checking what was agreed, and for reviewing difficult conversations. Recording is useful, but it carries duties: telling callers, respecting their choice, and keeping the audio only as long as it's needed.

One-party and all-party states

Federal law and most states follow a "one-party" rule: a call may be recorded if one person on it agrees, and that person can be the one recording. About a dozen states, including California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington, generally require the consent of everyone on the call. The details vary between states, and a call between two states can raise the question of which rule applies. Because a clinic rarely knows where a caller is, many businesses follow the stricter standard on every call.

In practice that means a clear notice at the start of the call, before anything important is said, and a real way to say no.

What a good recording practice includes

A good practice covers four things. A short notice that says the call is recorded and why. A way for the caller to object, with the call carrying on normally if they do. A retention period, so recordings are deleted on a schedule rather than kept forever. And access controls, so only the people who need to hear a recording can play it.

An example

A clinic decides to record calls for staff training. It adds a one-sentence notice to the start of its greeting, tells staff what to do if a caller asks not to be recorded, and sets recordings to be deleted after a fixed number of days. The practice manager checks once a quarter that the notice still plays.

How Tilly handles it

If your clinic records calls, callers hear "This call is recorded so the clinic can review it. If you'd prefer not to be recorded, just say so." If they object, recording stops at once and the audio captured so far is deleted. The call carries on as normal. You choose how many days recordings are kept, and if you set it to 0, Tilly won't record calls or play a recording notice.

The vet clinic phone compliance guide covers recording alongside the other rules that apply to clinic phones.