New Hampshire requires all-party consent to record a private conversation.
Secret recording is a felony risk in New Hampshire and will not help your case. Use an announced, dated archive instead.
Recommended: an announced, dated archive of your own line.
Keep an announced, dated archive
In an all-party state, announce the recording — what judges prefer anyway. Copareo Secure Line keeps a lawful, time-stamped record of your line.
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Short answer: no, you cannot legally record a private phone call or in-person conversation in New Hampshire unless every party to it has consented. New Hampshire is an all-party consent state, and unlike some of its neighbors, it treats a violation as a serious felony — not a fine-only misdemeanor. If you are documenting a co-parenting conflict for court, the safest path is to make the recording an open one, not a secret one.
What all-party consent means in New Hampshire
N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 570-A:2, the state's wiretapping statute, makes it a crime to intercept a telecommunication or oral communication “except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter or without the consent of all parties to the communication.” That single clause is the whole ballgame: absent a specific statutory exception, every person on the call has to consent before it can be recorded. There is no room in New Hampshire for the “I was a participant, so I can record it” logic that governs one-party states like Texas or New York. Everyone has to agree, and that agreement needs to actually happen — a recording made because you assumed the other parent would be fine with it does not satisfy the statute.
The penalties are serious
New Hampshire does not treat this as a minor infraction. The statute states plainly that a person who intercepts a communication without the consent of all parties (absent an exception) “is guilty of a class B felony.” A class B felony in New Hampshire carries meaningful prison exposure and a permanent criminal record — a very different risk profile from states that classify a first violation as a misdemeanor. For a parent in the middle of a custody dispute, that risk should end the conversation about secretly recording a co-parent: the potential felony exposure vastly outweighs any evidentiary benefit a secret recording might offer, especially since courts routinely exclude illegally obtained recordings anyway.
Exceptions and nuances
The statute's own language — “except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter” — signals that New Hampshire law does carve out specific, narrow exceptions elsewhere in the wiretapping chapter (for example, certain law-enforcement and emergency-service contexts). None of those exceptions give an ordinary parent a way around the all-party consent requirement for a private conversation with a co-parent. If you are not covered by one of those narrow statutory carve-outs, the default rule applies in full: get consent from everyone on the call, or do not record it.
Using it in a New Hampshire custody or co-parenting case
New Hampshire family courts are not a forum where a secretly recorded call helps your case — it is far more likely to hurt it. A recording obtained in violation of § 570-A:2 is not just inadmissible in most circumstances; it is evidence of a felony committed by the parent who made it, which is exactly the kind of fact an opposing attorney will use to question that parent's judgment and credibility on every other issue in the case, including parenting time. The constructive alternative is straightforward: tell the other parent, at the start of the call, that it is being recorded, and get their acknowledgment on the recording itself. An announced, consented-to, dated record of your communications is lawful, admissible, and far more persuasive to a judge than a recording whose legality is in doubt.
How Copareo handles this in New Hampshire
Copareo Secure Line treats New Hampshire as one of its all-party states (alongside California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Washington). When a parent's profile is set to New Hampshire, the product automatically plays a clear, spoken announcement at the very start of every call it records — before any content is captured, and with no way for the user to turn it off. This is a deliberate product guardrail, not a preference: it exists so a New Hampshire parent using Copareo is never exposed to the felony risk of an unannounced recording. Every call is then transcribed and organized into a dated, exportable archive designed for an attorney or a family court filing.
Recording across state lines
If you are in New Hampshire and the co-parent you are calling lives in a one-party consent state, do not assume the more permissive rule controls. The generally accepted, safer practice is to apply the stricter of the two states' rules to the whole call — which in this case means New Hampshire's all-party requirement governs regardless of where the other person is. Announce the recording every time, no matter where the co-parent is located.
Frequently asked questions
Is a first-time violation a misdemeanor in New Hampshire?
No. Recording without all-party consent (absent a specific statutory exception) is a class B felony under § 570-A:2, even on a first offense.
Does it matter if I was a participant in the call?
No. Being a party to the conversation does not exempt you from the consent requirement in New Hampshire, unlike in one-party states.
What counts as valid consent?
All parties to the communication need to actually consent — the safest and clearest way to establish this is a spoken announcement at the start of the call that is itself captured in the recording.
Can I use a recording made without consent if it proves something important for my custody case?
You should not count on it. Recordings made in violation of § 570-A:2 are generally excluded from evidence and expose the person who made them to felony liability. Talk to a New Hampshire attorney before relying on any unannounced recording.
Bottom line
New Hampshire requires the consent of every party before you record a call, and it enforces that rule with felony-level penalties. Announce the recording, get it acknowledged, and keep a clean, dated archive — that is the only version of this evidence a New Hampshire court will want to see. Because New Hampshire sits between one-party Maine and all-party Massachusetts, an interstate call can raise a real question about which rule governs — announcing the recording is the single habit that keeps you covered no matter where the other parent happens to pick up.
Copareo Secure Line is a $9.90 one-time purchase (no subscription, nothing to cancel) built to help parents document a co-parenting conflict for court: it records calls and texts with the other parent, transcribes them, and produces a dated, exportable archive. In New Hampshire, every recorded call opens with the automatic announcement described above. See the full state-by-state recording law guide and how to document co-parenting for court for more on building a record that holds up.
Not legal advice. This page summarizes New Hampshire law for general information and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed New Hampshire attorney. Recording and evidence rules change and courts decide admissibility case by case. Verify against the official statute (N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 570-A:2) and consult an attorney about your situation.