Is it legal to record phone calls in Nevada?
Only with everyone’s consent. Nevada is an all-party consent state: every participant in a phone call must consent to being recorded. The standard mechanism is a clear announcement — a party who stays on the line after hearing “this call may be recorded” is generally treated as having consented.
What Nevada law says
Nevada is one of roughly a dozen US states that require all parties’ consent to record a phone call. Recording without consent can carry criminal penalties and civil liability, so the practice to adopt is simple: announce the recording at the start of every call, or use a tool that announces it for you. Nevada’s supreme court has interpreted its statute as requiring all parties’ consent for phone calls.
Nevada splits its recording rules by medium. For telephone calls, NRS 200.620 has been read by the Nevada Supreme Court to require the consent of all parties before a call may be recorded - making Nevada an all-party state for phone recording despite statutory text that looks one-party at first glance. In-person conversations are different: NRS 200.650 allows recording with the consent of just one participant. Getting the two rules confused is the single most common mistake people make about Nevada law.
"Except as otherwise provided in NRS 179.410 to 179.515, inclusive, and except as otherwise provided in subsection 2, it is unlawful for any person to intercept or record a wire communication unless authorized by a court order or unless the interception or recording is made with the prior consent of at least one party to the communication." — NRS 200.620 (read with Lane v. Allstate: phone recording requires all-party consent despite this text)
Federal one-party consent under 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d) does not preempt Nevada's stricter phone-call rule. Lane v. Allstate (1998) requires all-party consent for wire communications even though NRS 200.620's text looks one-party; in-person conversations remain one-party under NRS 200.650.
Nevada is frequently mislabeled a one-party state, but for phone calls it is not. In Lane v. Allstate (1998), the Nevada Supreme Court reasoned that because the Legislature wrote an explicit one-party authorization into NRS 200.650 for in-person conversations and left that language out of NRS 200.620 for wire communications, phone recording requires every participant's consent - even when the person recording is on the call. Sharpe v. State (2015) extended this to cellphone calls and text messages, so there is no mobile-phone loophole. Consent can be express or implied: staying on the line after a clear recorded-line announcement is generally treated as consent. The statute contains one narrow exception, allowing one-party interception in an emergency where getting a court order is impractical, but only if a judge ratifies the interception within 72 hours - a provision aimed at law enforcement, not private callers. Face-to-face conversations remain one-party: you can record a meeting you attend without telling anyone.
| Consent rule for phone calls | All-party consent |
| Recording calls you're part of | Only with every participant’s consent — announce the recording. |
| Calls with people in other states | The stricter state's rule may apply — when in doubt, disclose. |
What breaking the law costs in Nevada
Willfully and knowingly recording a phone call without all-party consent is a category D felony under NRS 200.690, punishable by 1 to 4 years in Nevada state prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
Yes - NRS 200.690 also gives victims a civil action for the greater of actual damages or liquidated damages of $100 per day of violation (not less than $1,000), plus punitive damages, attorney fees and costs. Illegally recorded calls are also excludable as evidence.
Exceptions worth knowing
- In-person conversations: NRS 200.650 permits recording with one party's consent, so the all-party rule applies only to wire/phone communications.
- Emergency interception: one-party interception is allowed where an emergency makes obtaining a court order impractical, but a judge must ratify it within 72 hours (NRS 200.620(1)(b)).
- Law enforcement interception under a court order through Nevada's wiretap procedures.
- Public utilities and providers acting in the normal course of maintaining service.
How Nevada courts have ruled
Statutes set the rule; cases show how it plays out when a recording ends up in front of a judge. These are real, decided cases under Nevada law.
What happened: Randy Lane, a former Allstate employee suing over his departure, had recorded more than 700 telephone conversations with coworkers, supervisors, and witnesses without their consent.
The ruling: Answering a certified question from federal court, a 3-2 majority held that NRS 200.620 requires the consent of all parties to record a telephone conversation - even by a person who is on the call - so Lane's recordings were unlawful.
What happened: Police investigating drug trafficking obtained a warrant to wiretap two cellphone numbers used by Phillip Sharpe, capturing both calls and text messages, and Sharpe challenged whether Nevada's decades-old wiretap statute reached cellular communications at all.
The ruling: The court held that "wire communication" under NRS 200.620 includes cellphone calls and text messages, so the statute (and its consent and warrant framework) fully applies to mobile communications; Sharpe's conviction was affirmed.
What happened: California police, acting lawfully under California's one-party rule, recorded a phone call placed from California to McLellan in Nevada; the recording was used in his Nevada sexual-assault trial and he argued NRS 200.620 barred it.
The ruling: The court held that evidence lawfully intercepted in another jurisdiction is admissible in Nevada under NRS 48.077 even if the interception would have violated NRS 200.620 had it occurred in Nevada, so long as the out-of-state actors were not agents of Nevada law enforcement.
Personal calls vs. business calls in Nevada
Recording personal calls
Recording your own phone calls secretly in Nevada is a felony - full stop. That surprises people who assume they can tape a hostile ex, a co-parent, or a landlord because they are on the call; Lane v. Allstate closed that door, and Sharpe confirmed it applies to cellphones and texts. If you need to document phone harassment, ask on the recording for consent ("I'm recording this call, okay?") and proceed only if the other person agrees or keeps talking after clear notice; otherwise preserve voicemails, texts, and call logs, which you receive lawfully. In-person conversations are the opposite: you may record any meeting or confrontation you are personally part of without telling anyone, because NRS 200.650 is one-party for face-to-face conversations.
Recording business calls
Any business recording calls with Nevada customers needs all-party consent, which in practice means a recorded-line announcement at the start of every call before recording begins; continuing the call after the announcement supplies implied consent. Employee monitoring of phone calls also requires the consent of everyone on the line, so companies should disclose recording to employees in policy documents and to customers in the announcement. The exposure is serious on both fronts: a category D felony plus civil liability with minimum $1,000 liquidated damages per victim, punitive damages, and attorney fees, which has made Nevada a recurring venue for call-recording class actions. Out-of-state companies calling into Nevada should treat Nevada like California and announce every recorded call.
Calls that cross state lines
Nevada's own courts addressed cross-border recordings in McLellan v. State: a recording lawfully made in a one-party state can be admitted in Nevada courts under NRS 48.077, even though making the same recording inside Nevada would be a felony. That rule governs admissibility, not liability - a Nevadan who records a call, or an out-of-state business recording calls with Nevada residents, is still exposed to Nevada criminal and civil penalties. The safe practice for any call touching Nevada is to obtain everyone's consent.
The safe way to record in Nevada
Whatever the local rule, one habit covers every situation: say the call is being recorded at the start. Consent is then on the recording itself, and cross-border calls stop being a legal puzzle. Callmark can play "This call may be recorded" automatically on your calls, so the disclosure never depends on your memory.
For the full national picture — every all-party state, cross-border rules, and consent mechanics — see our state-by-state consent guide.
Sources and further reading
Statutes, court opinions, and reference guides cited on this page. Laws change — verify current text before relying on it for anything consequential.
- NRS 200.620 (official text, Nevada Legislature)
- NRS 200.690 penalties (Justia code)
- Lane v. Allstate Ins. Co., 114 Nev. 1176, 969 P.2d 938 (1998) (Justia opinion)
- Sharpe v. State, 350 P.3d 388 (Nev. 2015) (FindLaw opinion)
- McLellan v. State, 124 Nev. 263 (2008) (FindLaw opinion)
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press - Nevada recording guide
Common questions
Only if everyone on the call consents. An announcement at the start of the call, followed by the other party staying on the line, is the standard way consent is established in Nevada.
Courts have applied different states' laws to interstate calls, and you often can't verify where a mobile number is. The practical rule: assume the strictest state applies and disclose the recording.
In most states, continuing a call after a clear "this call may be recorded" announcement is treated as implied consent — the same mechanism customer-service lines rely on.
Only for in-person conversations. For telephone calls - landline or cell - the Nevada Supreme Court held in Lane v. Allstate (1998) that NRS 200.620 requires all parties' consent, and Sharpe v. State (2015) extended that to cellphone calls and text messages. Many websites list Nevada as one-party; for phone recording, that is wrong.
Willful violation is a category D felony carrying 1 to 4 years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine, and the person you recorded can sue for at least $1,000 in liquidated damages ($100 per day of violation), plus punitive damages and attorney fees. The recording is also generally inadmissible as evidence.
Not without their consent. Secretly recording the call is a felony and the recording will generally be excluded from evidence, which can hurt your case far more than it helps. If documentation matters, get consent on the recording, or rely on texts, emails, and voicemails.
Yes, if you are a participant. NRS 200.650 permits recording in-person conversations with the consent of one party, and your own consent counts. The all-party rule applies only to phone and wire communications.
Probably yes. In McLellan v. State (2008), the Nevada Supreme Court held that a recording lawfully made in another jurisdiction (there, California, a one-party state for that recording) is admissible in Nevada courts under NRS 48.077, as long as the recorder was not acting as an agent of Nevada law enforcement.
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