Minnesota Call Recording Laws: One-Party Consent

Minnesota is a one-party consent state: you can record a phone call or conversation you are part of, or one where a participant consents, as long as the purpose is not criminal or tortious. Recording without any party's consent can bring up to five years in prison and a $20,000 fine, and civil damages start at $10,000.

Minnesota's civil remedy is one of the strongest among one-party states, which makes careless third-party recording expensive. Recording your own calls with customers is lawful.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Minnesota recording law at a glance

Question	Answer in Minnesota
Consent rule for phone calls	One party
Main statute	Minn. Stat. § 626A.02
Can a participant record without telling others?	Yes, unless for a criminal or tortious purpose
Criminal penalty	Up to $20,000, 5 years, or both
Civil damages	Greater of 3x actual damages plus profits, or $100/day or $10,000 (§ 626A.13)
Texts and email	Covered

What the statute says

Minn. Stat. § 626A.02, subd. 1 prohibits intentionally intercepting any wire, oral or electronic communication, using a device to intercept oral communications, and disclosing or using the contents of a communication knowing it was illegally intercepted.

The one-party exception is subd. 2(d):

"It is not unlawful under this chapter for a person not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, electronic, or oral communication where such person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception unless such communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of the constitution or laws of the United States or of any state."

That language mirrors the federal Wiretap Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d).

News reporting

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) notes that the Minnesota Court of Appeals held in Copeland v. Hubbard Broadcasting (1995) that recordings made with one party's consent for news reporting did not violate the law, because their purpose was not criminal or tortious.

In-person conversations

Oral communications are protected when the speaker has a reasonable expectation of privacy (§ 626A.01). A participant may record. Conversations in public, where there is no such expectation, are outside the statute.

Texts and email

Minnesota defines electronic communication as any "transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature." Intercepting texts or email in transit without a party's consent falls under the same statute.

Penalties

Violation	Statute	Penalty
Intercepting, disclosing or using	§ 626A.02, subd. 4(a)	Up to $20,000, up to 5 years, or both
First offense involving certain unscrambled radio communications, no illegal purpose or commercial gain	subd. 4(b)	Lesser penalty
Hidden camera offenses	§ 609.746	Gross misdemeanor; RCFP: up to 1 year, $3,000

Civil liability

Minn. Stat. § 626A.13 authorizes civil actions. For most violations, subd. 3(b) lets the court award whichever is greater:

1. three times the actual damages suffered by the plaintiff plus any profits made by the violator, or
2. statutory damages of the greater of $100 a day for each day of violation or $10,000.

Relief also includes equitable relief, punitive damages in appropriate cases, and a reasonable attorney's fee and litigation costs (subd. 2). Good-faith reliance on a warrant, court order, subpoena or legislative or statutory authorization is a defense.

A $10,000 statutory floor, with treble actual damages as the alternative, is higher than the $1,000 minimum used in many states.

Why the damages matter for employers

Minnesota's civil remedy reaches anyone who "intercepts, discloses, or uses" a communication illegally, and the $10,000 statutory floor applies per plaintiff. An employer that installs monitoring software capturing employees' personal calls or messages without consent, across a team of ten, faces potential statutory damages of $100,000 before attorney's fees. Monitoring business lines with a signed policy, and leaving personal devices and accounts alone, avoids that exposure.

Calls between Minnesota and neighboring states

Neighbor	Rule for phone calls
Wisconsin	One-party
Iowa	One-party
South Dakota	One-party
North Dakota	One-party

Minnesota's neighbors all follow one-party consent. Minnesota companies with national customer bases, including retailers, health systems and medical device makers, still take calls from California, Florida, Illinois and other all-party states. Read interstate call recording consent and see the state-by-state table.

Three Minnesota scenarios

A Minneapolis retailer's support team records customer calls. Each agent is a party, so subd. 2(d) applies. The retailer serves customers nationwide, so it plays a notice before conversation starts.

A St. Paul business owner installs an app on a shared office phone that captures calls between two employees and a client. The owner is not a party, and no participant consented. That is interception, and each person recorded could seek at least $10,000.

A Duluth contractor records a call with a customer to use as leverage in a dispute by threatening to publish embarrassing parts. A participant recording made for a tortious purpose, such as extortion or intentional infliction of distress, loses the one-party protection.

What this means for Minnesota businesses

Healthcare and medical devices

Calls with patients or about patients involve health information. Recording requires access controls, a retention schedule and attention to privacy rules beyond consent.

Retail and national customer service

Announce recording before the conversation starts so callers from all-party states are covered.

Employees

A signed policy that business lines are recorded documents your side's consent. Do not capture communications on employees' personal devices or accounts without their consent.

Treble damages and profits

Minnesota's alternative measure, three times actual damages plus the violator's profits, can exceed the $10,000 statutory amount when a recording causes real financial harm, such as a recorded negotiation used to gain an advantage. That is one reason the statute excludes recordings made for tortious purposes. A recording made to document an agreement is routine; a recording made to manipulate the other side is the kind of conduct the civil remedy targets.

Minnesota recording checklist

• Recording notice at the start of recorded inbound calls
• Spoken notice on outbound recorded calls
• Signed employee recording and monitoring policy
• No interception of calls, texts or email you are not party to
• Recordings made for legitimate purposes only
• Callers who object are not recorded
• Access controls and retention schedule

Wording is in call recording disclosure scripts.

Recording calls in Minnesota with Callata

With recording turned on, Callata plays "This call may be recorded." to both sides as the call connects, inbound and outbound. Recordings are transcribed and summarized with sentiment and action items on the contact's record. Callata's terms keep consent-law compliance with you. Plans start at $99 a month with five users included and $20 for each additional user, and recording is part of the plan. Get started.