There are laws about telephone recordings, and laws about intellectual property (you aren't supposed to record concerts, etc.), but I never heard that it applied to conversations on the street, in a business encounter -- like a shop -- or for that matter, in a doctor's appointment.
Even if there were such a law, the odds are that you would have to argue with a patient who was determined to record (and who would deny that the law existed), waste your time, and certainly create suspicion all around.
As a matter of practicality, I treat every encounter as though a lawyer and an FBI agent were in the room with us, and I guess I wouldn't really object to a recorder unless it interfered with the exam or the interview.
When it comes to documenting, I have long since given up the idea that the notes are my personal property -- the electronic revolution has taken care of that -- and I make my notes as generic and uncompromising, even flattering as I can. If I have real concerns about someone I put a sticky note in the paper chart (we continue to use concurrent paper -- I don't trust electronics over the long term). That, of course, would go "away" if there were a request for records.
