Vermont has no state recording-consent statute, so the federal one-party consent rule applies: if you are a party to a call, you may record it without telling the other person.
A recording you made as a participant is generally usable in a Vermont custody matter, subject to the court's discretion. Vermont's Supreme Court has separately limited warrantless SECRET audio recording inside a home by invited officers — a different, narrower issue than a parent recording their own calls.
You may record a call or conversation you are part of.
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Short answer: yes, under federal law
Vermont is unusual: it is the one state that has never passed a general wiretapping or eavesdropping law covering private individuals. That does not mean recording is unregulated — it means the applicable rule comes from federal law instead of a Vermont statute, and federal law sets a one-party consent standard. If you are a party to a phone call or conversation, you may record it without telling the other person, whether you are in Vermont or on a call with someone there.
Why there is no Vermont statute, and what does exist
A review of Title 13 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated, the state's criminal code, turns up no chapter that makes it a crime for a private person to record a conversation they are part of. Vermont does have a narrower law on the books — the Vermont Electronic Communication Privacy Act, 13 V.S.A. chapter 232 (§§ 8101-8108) — but it regulates how Vermont law enforcement can compel a service provider to hand over stored electronic data. It creates no criminal liability for one private person recording a conversation with another, which is the situation a parent documenting a co-parenting conflict is actually in.
The federal rule that fills the gap
Because Vermont's own criminal code is silent, the operative rule comes from the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, specifically 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d). It permits a person not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication where that person is a party to it, or where one of the parties has given prior consent — unless the interception is for the purpose of committing a criminal or tortious act. That is the same one-party logic used by most states, just sourced from federal rather than state law. A violation of the federal wiretap act can carry up to five years in prison under 18 U.S.C. § 2511(4)(a), but that exposure is for recording communications you are not a party to, not for recording your own calls with your co-parent.
A separate, narrower limit: recording inside the home
Vermont's high court has weighed in on a related but distinct question. In State v. Geraw, 173 Vt. 350 (2002), the Vermont Supreme Court held that Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution bars warrantless secret audio recording inside a private home, even by a police officer who was invited in. That case is about government surveillance in a home, not about a parent recording their own phone calls or conversations with a co-parent — but it is worth knowing that Vermont's constitution has been read to give extra protection to what happens inside a home, a nuance that a general one-party consent summary elsewhere in the country would not mention.
Using a recording in a Vermont custody case
A recording you made as a participant is generally usable as evidence in a Vermont family court matter, in the sense that neither Vermont's statutes nor the federal consent rule stand in the way of it. The judge still decides how much weight to give it based on relevance, authenticity, and how it was obtained. Keep the complete, unedited original file, note the date and who was involved, and resist trimming the recording down to only the worst moment — an altered file tends to undercut your credibility even when the underlying recording was made lawfully.
The interstate caveat: what if your co-parent lives elsewhere?
If your co-parent lives in an all-party consent state — California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and several others — the cautious, generally accepted approach for a call that crosses state lines is to follow the stricter rule for the whole call: announce that you are recording, or otherwise make sure every party knows. Which law would actually apply to a specific interstate call — Vermont's silence plus the federal floor, versus the other state's all-party rule — is a fact-specific legal question that this page cannot resolve for you. If your calls with your co-parent regularly cross state lines, confirm the current rule with a licensed attorney before relying on an unannounced recording.
How to document it so it holds up
A recording is only one part of a record a Vermont family court will trust. Preserve the full audio file rather than a short clip, keep complete text threads instead of cropped screenshots, and attach reliable dates and times to everything. A consistent, contemporaneous history of missed exchanges, disparaging messages, and broken agreements carries far more weight than a single recording produced only after a bad argument.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to tell my co-parent I am recording our calls in Vermont?
No. Because federal one-party consent applies in the absence of a Vermont statute, your own participation in the call is enough. Announcing it is not legally required, though some parents do it anyway to avoid a later dispute about how the recording was made.
Is Vermont really the only state with no recording law at all?
Vermont is widely described as the one state without a general wiretapping or eavesdropping statute covering private recording. It is not unregulated, though — federal law fills the gap with the same one-party consent standard used across most of the country.
Does State v. Geraw mean I cannot record inside my own home?
No. Geraw concerned warrantless government surveillance inside a home by an invited police officer, under the Vermont Constitution's search-and-seizure protections. It does not restrict a private person, like a parent, from recording their own phone calls or conversations with a co-parent.
May I secretly record my co-parent talking with our child when I am not on the call?
Only if you are a party to that conversation, or a party has consented. Recording a conversation you are not part of, without any consent, falls outside the federal one-party exception and can expose you to liability. This is a genuinely fact-specific question when a child is involved — talk to a family law attorney about your household's situation.
How Copareo helps you document lawfully
Recording your own calls in Vermont is lawful under the federal one-party standard, but a lawful recording is only useful if it is preserved the right way. Copareo Secure Line routes your calls and texts with a co-parent through a dedicated line, time-stamps every exchange with a tamper-evident method, and seals it with a unique SHA-256 fingerprint. Everything is organized into a chain-of-custody record you can export as a single court-ready PDF with a table of contents — for $9.90 once, no subscription, nothing to cancel. See the full state-by-state recording law hub for other states, and read how to document co-parenting for court for the complete picture beyond recordings alone.
Not legal advice. This page summarizes the law applicable in Vermont for general information as of 2026-07-18 and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed Vermont attorney. Recording and evidence rules change, and courts decide admissibility case by case. Verify against the federal statute (18 U.S.C. § 2511) and consult an attorney about your situation, especially for calls that cross state lines.