Recording consent law in Maryland
Maryland requires everyone's consent to record a private conversation, backs it with felony penalties, and gives the recorded person statutory damages.
General information, not legal advice. Recording law turns on facts — where each person physically is, whether the exchange counts as oral or electronic, and what your profession separately requires. If the answer matters, ask a lawyer licensed in Maryland.
Short answer: Maryland (Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-402) requires the consent of all parties to intercept a private oral, wire, or electronic communication. A violation is a felony, and § 10-410 provides statutory civil damages.
At a glance
| Statute | Md. Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-402 (recording); § 10-410 (civil) |
|---|---|
| Applies to | Both in-person and telephone / electronic communications |
| Criminal penalty | Felony — up to 5 years imprisonment and/or a fine up to $10,000. |
| Civil liability | Yes, under § 10-410 — actual damages, or liquidated damages of $100 per day of violation or $1,000, whichever is higher, plus punitive damages and attorney's fees. |
The detail that catches people out
The all-party requirement applies to a “private conversation.” Maryland courts have read that to mean a conversation in which the parties have a reasonable expectation of privacy, so genuinely public exchanges fall outside the statute.
Maryland's law is the one that entered public consciousness through political recording controversies, which has left many residents with a rough sense that “you can't record people here.” The instinct is roughly right for private conversations, and the penalties are real — a felony, plus a civil floor of $1,000 that doesn't require proving harm.
What this means for AI meeting notes
Maryland treats secret recording of a private conversation as a felony. For any confidential professional discussion, all-party consent is the only defensible approach.
Two things worth separating. Whether a recording bot is visible in the attendee list has no bearing on any of the above — the statute governs the recording, not how obvious your tooling is. And where the recording is processed is a different question again: Maryland law decides whether you may record at all, while your duty of confidentiality decides who may then receive it.
A tool that captures audio through your own machine and processes it locally, like Oats, removes the second problem and leaves the first entirely intact. You still need whatever consent Maryland requires.
If people are in different states
A call with someone in a one-party-consent state and someone in Maryland is not a one-party call. Standard conservative practice is to comply with the strictest rule represented on the call — get everyone's agreement, out loud, and note that you got it. See our overview of US recording consent law for the wider picture and the other all-party states.
Sources: Md. Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-402. § 10-410 civil action. RCFP — Maryland. Verified July 2026. Laws change — check the primary source before relying on this.
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