Hawaii is a one-party consent state: you may record a call or conversation you are part of, as long as you are not doing it to commit a crime.
A recording you took part in can generally support a Hawaii custody case, but the one-party consent exception is void if the recording itself is made to commit a crime or a tort — for example, to harass or extort the other parent.
You may record a call or conversation you are part of.
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The short answer: Hawaii is a one-party consent state
If you are a parent in Hawaii asking whether you can record a co-parenting call, the answer is yes, with one important condition attached. Hawaii only requires the consent of one party to a wire, oral or electronic communication, and as a participant, your own consent is enough — as long as you are not recording in order to commit a crime.
What the statute actually says
The rule sits in Haw. Rev. Stat. § 803-42(b)(3)(A), which makes it lawful “for a person not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication when the person is a party to the communication or when one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to the interception.” That is a standard one-party rule. But the same subsection immediately narrows it: this consent-based lawfulness does not apply “unless the communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States or of this State.” In plain terms, being a party to the call protects you — unless the whole point of recording it was to help you commit a crime or a civil wrong, in which case the one-party shield disappears.
This wording closely tracks the federal wiretap act, 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d), which uses almost identical language to protect a participant’s own recording while stripping that protection away when the recording itself is made to further a crime or a tort. Hawaii’s law and federal law are, in effect, saying the same thing: your consent as a party is enough, but only if your purpose is honest documentation, not wrongdoing.
The penalty for getting it wrong
Unlawful interception under § 803-42 is a felony. It is a Class C felony under Hawaii’s general sentencing code, punishable by up to five years in prison (HRS § 706-660) and a fine of up to $10,000 (HRS § 706-640). That exposure applies to someone who intercepts a conversation they are not part of, or who is a party but is recording specifically to further a crime or a tort — not to an ordinary parent recording their own call to keep an honest record.
The exception that matters most for co-parents
The felonious-purpose carve-out is the nuance every Hawaii parent documenting a custody conflict should understand: recording your own conversation with a co-parent to preserve an honest, contemporaneous record of what was said is exactly the lawful use the one-party rule is meant to protect. Recording with the specific intent to harass, extort, or otherwise commit a crime or tort against the other parent is not. Keep your purpose focused on documentation, not leverage, and you stay squarely inside the lawful exception.
Using a recording in a Hawaii custody case
A lawfully made, one-party-consent recording is generally admissible in a Hawaii family court matter, subject to the ordinary rules on relevance and authenticity that apply to any evidence. As in every state, judges give more weight to a complete, unedited, clearly dated recording than to an isolated clip. Preserve the original file, record the date, time and participants, and let your attorney frame how it fits into the broader case rather than trying to make a single clip do all the work.
Recording across state lines: the strictest-rule caveat
Hawaii’s one-party rule applies to calls governed by Hawaii law, but a co-parent who is physically in an all-party state during the call may be protected by that state’s stricter rule instead. If a call could be governed by more than one state’s law, the safest approach is to assume the strictest rule applies and announce the recording. See call-recording laws in all 50 states to check the rule wherever the other parent is located before relying on Hawaii’s one-party standard for an interstate call.
How to document it so it holds up
Keep your Hawaii recordings inside a routine you would be comfortable explaining to a judge: record for the honest purpose of preserving what was actually said, keep the full unedited file rather than a trimmed clip, and log the date, time and who was on the line. Preserve full text threads instead of cropped screenshots, and store copies somewhere you control, outside a single phone that could be lost or reset. A consistent, purpose-clean documentation habit is what separates a lawful, persuasive record from something that looks like it was built to entrap.
Frequently asked questions
Can I record a phone call with my co-parent in Hawaii without telling them?
Yes, as long as you are a party to the call and not recording it to commit a crime or a tort. Your own consent under § 803-42(b)(3)(A) is enough.
What does the “criminal or tortious act” exception mean in practice?
If the purpose of your recording is to document a conversation, you are protected. If the purpose is to harass, extort, or otherwise break the law, the one-party consent protection does not apply, and the interception itself can be treated as unlawful.
What is the penalty for illegal interception in Hawaii?
It is a Class C felony under HRS § 803-42, punishable under Hawaii’s general sentencing code (HRS §§ 706-640 and 706-660) by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Will a Hawaii judge automatically accept my recording?
No. A lawful recording still has to clear the usual evidentiary hurdles of relevance, authenticity and completeness before a judge admits it.
Can my co-parent legally record our calls too?
Yes. Hawaii’s one-party rule applies equally to both of you: either parent, as a participant, can lawfully record the same conversation for a legitimate documentation purpose.
Is it different if I record a video call instead of an audio-only call?
The same interception rules generally apply to the audio portion of a video call. Recording someone’s image on video can raise separate privacy questions beyond § 803-42, so treat the audio and video aspects as two different legal questions.
Does it matter that Hawaii is not physically connected to the mainland for the interstate caveat?
Not really. What matters is where each party is physically located during the call, not geographic distance. A co-parent on the U.S. mainland in an all-party state still triggers the same strictest-rule caution described above.
Does the felonious-purpose exception ever apply to an ordinary custody recording?
Almost never. It is aimed at recordings made to further genuine wrongdoing, not at a parent honestly documenting a co-parenting conversation for a family court case — keep your purpose focused on that documentation and you stay well clear of the carve-out.
Bottom line
In Hawaii, you may record your own calls and conversations with a co-parent for the honest purpose of documentation, and a complete, unedited recording can support your custody case. Keep your purpose clean, watch the interstate caveat, and read how to document a co-parenting conflict for court for how to turn a recording into a full court-ready record.
How Copareo Secure Line helps in Hawaii: Hawaii’s one-party rule (HRS § 803-42) lets you keep the calls you are on, as long as the purpose is honest documentation and not a crime or a tort. Copareo is a one-time $9.90 — no subscription, nothing to cancel — that records and transcribes those calls and texts and time-stamps them into a tamper-evident, exportable archive with an admissibility one-pager for your attorney.
Not legal advice. This page summarizes Hawaii law for general information and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed Hawaii attorney. Recording and evidence rules change and courts decide admissibility case by case. Verify against the official statute (HRS § 803-42) and consult an attorney about your situation.