Can a third party record phone conversations with consent of people on phone?

[ryanms121@yahoo]

Maryland

I own a marketing company and I want to record the phone calls of some of my clients in order to see how they can improve their sales pitch. If I have my clients (that are always businesses) sign a document saying that my company has the right to record their calls AND I also have an automated message play at the beginning of each call which says "This call may be recorded for quality assurance" does that cover me from a legal standpoint? The one variable here is that I am a third party recording the phone calls of two other parties so I don't know if both parties agreeing to be recorded makes it legal for a third party to record the conversation. Thanks. I live in Maryland which is a two party consent state as far as recording phone conversations go.

 

[single317dad]

Maryland

I own a marketing company and I want to record the phone calls of some of my clients in order to see how they can improve their sales pitch. If I have my clients (that are always businesses) sign a document saying that my company has the right to record their calls AND I also have an automated message play at the beginning of each call which says "This call may be recorded for quality assurance" does that cover me from a legal standpoint? The one variable here is that I am a third party recording the phone calls of two other parties so I don't know if both parties agreeing to be recorded makes it legal for a third party to record the conversation. Thanks. I live in Maryland which is a two party consent state as far as recording phone conversations go.

A slight correction: "two-party consent states" are actually "all-party consent states". If there are 7 people on the line, you need consent from all of them. As long as the recording is made with the knowledge and consent of all parties to the conversation, you can safely make your recording.

Whether the defined "party" would be the business or each individual employee would be another matter. If you have Business A sign a blanket consent form, I don't think that will cover Employee C who might call you on behalf of Business A. You'd need the employee's separate consent for each recorded call. The implied consent given by continuing the call after the standard "may be monitored for quality assurance" message plays has a pretty solid history in the courts.

There's also a federal Business Use Exception where calls recorded "in the ordinary course of business" on certain equipment are excepted form consent rules. That rule gets pretty complicated; so much so that appeals courts have disagreed over its application.