Florida call recording law for recruiters: section 934.03 explained

Florida is an all-party consent state. Under Florida Statutes § 934.03, recording or transcribing a phone screen or video interview is lawful only "when all of the parties to the communication have given prior consent," and a violation is generally a third-degree felony. A candidate recorded without consent can also sue under § 934.10 for at least $1,000 plus attorney's fees. For a recruiter, the rule is simple to follow: tell the candidate you are recording or transcribing and get a clear yes before you start.

Calling between states? The consent checker compares Florida's rule with wherever you are.

This page covers what Florida's statute prohibits, how it treats phone, video and in-person interviews, what a candidate can recover, how the rule reaches calls from other states, and a consent line built for it. The other all-party states are in the two-party consent states table.

What section 934.03 prohibits

Section 934.03(1) makes it an offense to intentionally intercept, or try to intercept, any wire, oral or electronic communication, and to use or disclose the contents of one that was unlawfully intercepted. The exception that matters for interviews is in subsection (2)(d): it is lawful "to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication when all of the parties to the communication have given prior consent to such interception."

Two definitions in § 934.02 decide how far that reaches:

• Intercept means "the aural or other acquisition of the contents of any wire, electronic, or oral communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical, or other device." That wording is about acquiring what was said, not about saving an audio file, so a live transcription tool is best treated the same as a recorder.
• Oral communication means one "uttered by a person exhibiting an expectation that such communication is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying such expectation." A private interview in an office or meeting room fits that description.

There is no general exception for employers or for recruiting. The provider exception in (2)(a) is for communications service providers acting in the normal course of providing their service; it does not cover a business recording its own calls.

Phone, video and in-person interviews

The word "prior" matters. Consent collected halfway through, or after a call, does not make the earlier part lawful. If your tool starts capturing the moment you join, either start it only after the candidate agrees or say the notice as the first thing captured, so the recording opens with the question and the answer.

Penalties: criminal grading and civil damages

Under § 934.03(4), a person who violates subsection (1) is "guilty of a felony of the third degree." Lower misdemeanor grades apply to certain first offenses involving radio communications that are not for commercial advantage, which does not describe a recruiter's call.

The civil remedy is in § 934.10. A person whose communication is intercepted, disclosed or used in violation of the chapter can recover:

• actual damages, but not less than liquidated damages "computed at the rate of $100 a day for each day of violation or $1,000, whichever is higher";
• punitive damages; and
• a reasonable attorney's fee and other litigation costs reasonably incurred.

A civil action may not be commenced later than two years after the claimant first has a reasonable opportunity to discover the violation. The statute also provides a good-faith defense, but it is built around reliance on court orders, law enforcement requests and similar authority, not a recruiter's belief that one-party consent was enough.

A rough sense of scale, arithmetic only: a team that recorded 30 Florida candidates without asking, if each call were found to be a violation, would face a floor of $30,000 in liquidated damages before punitive damages and fees. That is not a prediction of any award. It is the reason to make consent a habit rather than a judgment call.

Calling into Florida from another state

Florida's appeals courts have focused on where the words are spoken. In Cohen Brothers, LLC v. ME Corp., 872 So. 2d 321 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004), relying on the Florida Supreme Court's decision in State v. Mozo (1995), the court said an interception occurs "where the words or the communication is uttered, not where it is recorded or heard," and affirmed dismissal of claims by people who spoke from New York and Puerto Rico even though the calls were recorded in Miami.

The practical reading for a recruiter runs both ways. A candidate who takes your call from Florida is who the statute protects, wherever you are sitting. And a recruiter working from Florida is speaking from Florida on every call, so their own words are covered too. Treat any call with a Florida end as all-party. For how other states handle the same question, see recording calls across state lines.

Transcription tools and note-takers

Because Florida defines intercept as acquiring the contents of a communication with a device, a tool that produces a live transcript is inside the definition even if it keeps no audio. What a transcript-only tool changes is how much data you hold afterwards, not whether you need consent. Two situations deserve particular care:

• A bot that joins on someone's behalf. If a note-taking bot joins a Florida candidate's interview, every person on the call, including the candidate, needs to have agreed before it starts.
• Tools that analyze the candidate. Scoring, ranking or voice analysis brings in separate rules; see AI hiring laws by state.

A Florida-ready consent line

This version names what is happening, gives a real alternative and asks a question the candidate can answer. It is meant to be said before the first substantive question.

"Before we start: I'd like to [record / transcribe] this call so I have
accurate notes for the [role] position, instead of typing while you talk.
It's used only for this role and kept for [period]. If you'd rather I
didn't, that's completely fine and I'll take notes by hand. Is it OK
with you if I [record / transcribe]?"

[Wait for a clear yes. If the answer is no or unclear, keep capture off.]

For panels, written notices and what to do when a candidate says no, use the fuller set in the interview recording consent script.

Checklist for Florida calls

• Ask every Florida candidate, and every candidate when you are in Florida, before capture starts.
• Say "recording" or "transcribing," not "this call may be monitored."
• Get the other interviewers' agreement before the call.
• If anyone says no, stop capture and say that you have.
• Log the date, the wording used and the answer.
• If a candidate joins from a different place than expected, ask which state they are in today.
• Re-check the statute yearly and put the date you last checked it in your recording policy.
• Keep your consent log separate from interview notes, so it can be produced without handing over the assessment.

If you are based in a one-party state and wondering how much of this applies to you, the short answer is in one-party consent states: your own state's rule does not travel with you into a call with someone in Florida.