New Jersey Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act
NJ Wiretap Act
Communications · Location
New Jersey's wiretap law makes it a crime to intercept, disclose, or use wire, electronic, or oral communications without authorization and gives victims a civil damages claim. New Jersey is a one-party consent state: a private person may record a communication they are a party to, or where one party has consented, unless the purpose is criminal, tortious, or otherwise injurious. The Act also protects stored communications and limits provider disclosures of customer records, including device location, to law enforcement.
- Where
- New Jersey
- Citation
- N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-1 et seq. (key sections 2A:156A-3, -4, -24, -27, -29); P.L.1968, c.409, as amended (notably P.L.1993, c.29)
- Status
- In force
- Enforced by
- County prosecutors and the Attorney General (criminal); private civil actions by persons whose communications were unlawfully intercepted, disclosed, or used
- People can sue
- Yes
- Penalties
- Unlawful interception, disclosure, or use is a third-degree crime (2A:156A-3). Unauthorized access to stored communications is a fourth-degree crime, or third-degree if for commercial advantage, private gain, or malicious damage (2A:156A-27). Civil plaintiffs recover actual damages of not less than $100 per day of violation or $1,000, whichever is higher, plus punitive damages and attorney's fees (2A:156A-24).
- Applies to
- Any person who intercepts, discloses, or uses wire, electronic, or oral communications (2A:156A-3)
- Providers of electronic communication service or remote computing service and communication common carriers, for stored communications and subscriber records (2A:156A-27, -29)
Rights it gives people
- A person whose communication is unlawfully intercepted, disclosed, or used may sue for liquidated or actual damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees.N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-24
Practices it requires
- Do not purposely intercept, or disclose or use the contents of, a wire, electronic, or oral communication obtained through unlawful interception.N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-3
- Recording is lawful for a private person who is a party to the communication or where one party gave prior consent, unless done to commit a criminal, tortious, or other injurious act; being the telephone subscriber is not consent for calls among other people.N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-4(d)
- Communication service providers may intercept only as a necessary incident of providing service or protecting their rights or property, and may not use service observing or random monitoring except for mechanical or service quality checks.N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-4(a)
- Providers may disclose communication contents to law enforcement only under a warrant, and subscriber records or device location information only under a warrant, consent, court order, or (for location) a good-faith emergency; they must preserve records for 90 days on law enforcement request.N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-29(a), (c), (g)
Security duties
- Do not access a communications facility without authorization (or exceed authorization) to obtain, alter, or block access to a communication in electronic storage.N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-27
Sources
- Official text
- N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-3, -4, -24, -27, -29, current text (NJ Legislature statutes database, updated through P.L.2026, c.30)
Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.
Unverified: Original effective date of P.L.1968, c.409 and the most recent amendment across the whole Act were not confirmed; section histories fetched show 2A:156A-4 last amended 1999, c.151 and 2A:156A-29 last amended 2009, c.184. | The statutes database has no stable per-section URL; the link above opens the database, where each section can be found by citation.
Research reference, not legal advice.