Arkansas: Call and Conversation Recording Consent Requirements

Requirements one by one

Governing law and covered recording

Arkansas Code § 5-60-120 covers interception of a wire, landline, oral, telephonic, or wireless communication and the recording or possession of the recording. That last word matters: the section can reach someone who keeps an unlawfully made recording, not only the person who pressed the record button.

Whose consent a participant needs

Arkansas uses a one-party rule. Section 5-60-120(a) makes the conduct unlawful unless the recorder "is a party to the communication" or one party has given prior consent. If you are participating, your party status supplies the statutory safe harbor. If you are not participating, permission from one actual participant is required before the interception and recording.

Privacy, confidentiality, or secrecy trigger

The statute does not add a confidentiality or reasonable-expectation test. It names the covered communication types and then asks whether the recorder was a party or had one party's prior consent. It also states no public-gathering or open-proceeding exclusion. Other privacy, trespass, harassment, or workplace rules may still apply, but § 5-60-120 itself is not written around a separate privacy expectation.

Telephone, in-person, and electronic coverage

The current codified list is broad: wire, landline, oral, telephonic, and wireless communications. The official 2001 enactment expressly described cordless and cellular telephone technologies when it added the landline and wireless language. "Oral" reaches an in-person audio conversation; telephonic and wireless cover the ordinary call question.

The section does not separately define a general "electronic communication" category for texts, email, stored data, or images. Those media should not be treated as controlled by this audio answer merely because a phone or computer carried them.

How consent or notice is given

A participant need not announce the recording or obtain an additional person's permission under § 5-60-120(a). A nonparticipant needs one party's "prior consent." Arkansas prescribes no written form, script, audible tone, or rule that continued participation after a warning automatically proves consent.

Major participant-facing exceptions

The ordinary-person safe harbor is participation or one participant's prior consent. The remaining statutory exceptions mainly concern government and communications systems: acts under color of law; utility or telecommunications-provider assistance and ordinary-course operations; telecommunications services; FCC-licensed amateur radio; police-scanner interception for pleasure; and specified court orders for stored records, pen registers, and trap-and-trace devices (§ 5-60-120(c)-(g)).

Criminal classification and penalty

Section 5-60-120(b) classifies a violation as a Class A misdemeanor. Arkansas Code § 5-4-401(b)(1) caps the jail sentence at one year, and § 5-4-201(b)(1) permits a fine up to $2,500.

Civil remedy and evidence effect

Section 5-60-120 states a criminal classification but creates no express private damages action, liquidated-damages formula, attorney-fee award, or injunction. A person may have a different common-law or statutory claim on particular facts, but it would not arise from an express remedy in this section.

The criminal prohibition is also not an automatic state-law exclusion rule. In King v. State, the Arkansas Supreme Court held that although § 5-60-120 made a private third party's recording unlawful, the section "does not proscribe the admissibility of an unlawful recording." Federal interception law and ordinary evidence rules can present separate questions.

Interstate and federal boundary

Section 5-60-120 gives no special rule for an interstate call or the location of the recorder or device. Federal law generally permits a private participant, or a person with one party's prior consent, to record unless the purpose is to commit a criminal or tortious act (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)). Arkansas and federal law therefore share a one-party baseline, but that does not resolve whether a stricter connected state's rule applies. Consent from everyone is the prudent course when jurisdictions differ.

What trips people up

Possessing the recording is part of the Arkansas offense text. If a nonparticipant secretly records two other people without either person's prior consent, handing the file to someone else does not erase the problem; § 5-60-120(a) also names possession of the recording.

One-party consent requires a real party. Leaving a phone in a room after you walk away does not make you a participant in the later conversation. Without one remaining participant's prior consent, the statutory safe harbor is missing.

Illegality and admissibility are separate questions. King says § 5-60-120 itself does not exclude an unlawful recording. That does not make the recording lawful or guarantee that another exclusion rule will not apply.

Common questions

May I record my own Arkansas phone call without telling the other person? Yes under § 5-60-120(a), because you are a party. A different state's law may matter on an interstate call.

May a friend record my call for me? Yes if you give the friend prior consent before the interception and recording. Your friend does not need to become a speaker, but one actual party must authorize the recording.

Does Arkansas's rule cover an in-person meeting? Yes. The statute expressly includes an "oral" communication, and a participant may record under the same party-status safe harbor.

Statutes and sources

• Ark. Code § 5-60-120(a)-(e) — one-party rule, covered media, misdemeanor classification, and exceptions, as enacted by 2001 Act 1823. https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2001%2FPublic%2FACT1823.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• Ark. Code § 5-60-120(f)-(g) — stored-record and pen-register court-order provisions, added by 2003 Act 1087. https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2003%2FPublic%2FACT1087.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• Ark. Code § 5-4-401(b)(1) — one-year Class A misdemeanor ceiling. https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ar/transforms/ar/ocar/r78/gov.ar.code.title.05.html#t05c04s5-4-401 (accessed 2026-07-20)
• Ark. Code § 5-4-201(b)(1) — $2,500 Class A misdemeanor fine ceiling, as amended by 2009 Act 209. https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2009%2FPublic%2FACT209.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• King v. State, 2019 Ark. 114, 571 S.W.3d 476 — § 5-60-120 does not itself exclude an unlawful recording. https://www.arcourts.gov/sites/default/files/2019-06/Appellate-Update-April-2019.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d) — federal private-participant consent rule. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title18-section2511&num=0&edition=prelim (accessed 2026-07-20)