Author: Bill Wilson

Do you ever call customer service for a company and get a message that the call may be recorded or monitored? Most likely this is a quality control function and something you may do in your own agency to measure your customer service or E&O exposure. Keep in mind that there are legal ramifications of doing this and certain caveats to consider. 

Recently, one of the participants in the CIRMS email discussion list (learn more about CIRMS below) received a question about recording phone conversations in light of a California decision on a Georgia company that recorded a California call. (This case is addressed in the "Privacy Rights Clearing House" link below.) There are 12 states that require the consent of all parties to a telephone call: California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Do you ever call customer service for a company and get a message that the call may be recorded or monitored? Most likely this is a quality control function and something you may do in your own agency to measure your customer service or E&O exposure. Keep in mind that there are legal ramifications of doing this and certain caveats to consider.

From the CIRMS discussion, below are several sources of information on this subject (along with information about CIRMS) that you might find helpful, along with consulting an attorney about the legality of monitoring or recording phone calls in your state.

• Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (state-by-state guide to taping laws)
  http://www.rcfp.org/taping/

• Privacy Rights Clearing House - California Case
  The California Supreme Court ruled in July 2006 that companies calling Californians from outside the state must comply with the state's all-party consent law. Prior to this unanimous decision, it was not clear if the federal one-party standard would apply to interstate calls ( Kearney v. Smith Barney, S124739).
  http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs9-wrtp.htm

• American Legal Guide
  http://www.callcorder.com/phone-recording-law-america.htm

• Employer Monitoring of Employee Phone Conversations
  http://www.wrf.com/publication.cfm?publication_id=12683

CIRMS

There are very few email newsletters I receive and even fewer online discussion groups I participate in. An internet discussion group is a group of people with similar interests who submit questions and comments via email that are redirected to everyone in the group for further discussion. One such group can be found at Yahoo! under the name "CIRMS." CIRMS is a discussion group for insurance and risk management issues for condos, coops, and planned communities.

While that is the focus of the group, the topics of discussion range far wider than this limited market. From specific CGL, construction defects, and additional insured and certificate issues to natural disaster remediation and legislation, I have found CIRMS to be an invaluable source of highly current, interesting, and valuable information.

It is easy to join and, if it's not your cup of tea, unsubscribe from this discussion group. If you're concerned about the email volume, unlike other discussion groups I've been a part of that bombard you with dozens of emails daily, this is a relatively small group and you can expect no more than a few emails a day, the vast majority being communications of great value.

To join, go here:

     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cirms/

Or send an email to this address:

     cirms-subscribe@yahoogroups.com