Virginia: Employee Personnel File Access Requirements
The short answer
Virginia does not require access to an entire personnel file, but it gives a current or former employee—or the employee's attorney—a written-request right to copies of four record categories: employment dates, wages or salary, job description and title, and workplace injuries. The employer ordinarily has 30 days, with one written-delay extension of no more than 30 additional days, and may charge a reasonable paper or electronic-copy fee. The statute provides a subpoena route and possible expenses, court costs, and attorney fees for specified willful refusals, but no correction or rebuttal procedure.
Ask Ezel about your situation
This is the general rule in Virginia. Ezel applies current Virginia law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | Va. Code § 8.01-413.1(B)-(E)—copy right for four employment-record categories, not the full personnel file |
|---|---|
| Who may request the file | Current or former employee, or the employee's attorney; no general nonattorney representative right stated (§ 8.01-413.1(B)) |
| Records covered | Records reflecting employment dates, wages/salary, job description/title, and workplace injuries (§ 8.01-413.1(B)) |
| Excluded or redacted records | Evaluations, discipline, grievances, training, references, and other file material not among the four categories; safety-risk records go to attorney/insurer instead (§ 8.01-413.1(E)) |
| How to request and verify authority | Written request from employee, former employee, or attorney; no notarization, certified mail, employer form, or ID-copy requirement stated (§ 8.01-413.1(B)) |
| Response deadline and inspection location | Copies within 30 days; if unable, written reason permits ≤30 additional days. No inspection-location rule (§ 8.01-413.1(B)) |
| Copy, mailing, and cost rights | Employer must furnish copies; reasonable per-page fee for paper or reasonable fee for electronic records (§ 8.01-413.1(B)) |
| Correction or employee rebuttal | No statutory correction, amendment, expungement, or employee-rebuttal procedure for these records |
| Former-worker limits and enforcement | Former employees covered with no stated cutoff. Subpoena after noncompliance; specified willful refusal/overcharge may yield expenses, costs, and attorney fees (§ 8.01-413.1(C)-(D)) |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
Requirements one by one
Who may request and what the employer must copy
Section 8.01-413.1(B) covers a current employee, former employee, or the
employee's attorney. Its list is narrow and specific: records reflecting dates
of employment, wages or salary, job description and title, and injuries
sustained during the employment. It does not turn the employer's complete HR
folder into an inspectable personnel file.
Written request, deadline, and cost
The request must be written. The employer must furnish the covered records
within 30 days after receiving it. If the employer cannot do so, it must give
the requester a written reason for the delay and then has no more than 30
additional days to comply.
The statute requires copies rather than an on-site inspection. For paper or
hard-copy records, the employer may charge a reasonable per-page copying fee;
for electronic records, it may charge a reasonable electronic-record fee.
Enforcement
After noncompliance with a proper written request, the employee or attorney may
cause a subpoena duces tecum—a court command to produce records—to be issued.
The damages rule is narrower than a remedy for every late response. It applies
when the court finds a willful refusal through failure, without good cause, to
answer a second or later properly submitted written request, or through a charge
above the reasonable copying and processing expense. The court may then award
the employee's record-obtaining expenses, a fee refund, court costs, and
reasonable attorney fees.
What trips people up
Virginia's statute is an employment-record copy law, but not a full personnel-
file law. The four-item list does not include evaluations, warnings, discipline,
grievances, training records, references, or investigation files. An employer
policy or agreement may provide those voluntarily, but § 8.01-413.1 does not
require them.
A narrow safety exception changes the recipient rather than necessarily ending
access. If a treating physician or clinical psychologist has placed the
specified written danger or substantial-harm statement in the records, the
employer need not furnish those records directly to the employee. On request,
the records instead go within 30 days to the employee's attorney or authorized
insurer.
Common questions
Can a former employee use this law?
Yes. Subsection B expressly covers former employees and states no post-
termination cutoff, although an employer can only copy records it retains.
Can I demand my performance reviews and disciplinary warnings?
Not under this statute. Its mandatory list is limited to employment dates,
wages or salary, job description and title, and workplace injuries.
Does the employer get 60 days automatically?
No. The ordinary deadline is 30 days. The additional period requires written
notice explaining the delay and cannot exceed 30 more days.
Statutes and sources
- Va. Code § 8.01-413.1(B): eligible requesters, four covered record categories,
30-day deadline, written extension, and reasonable copy fees — official
text
(accessed July 12, 2026). - Va. Code § 8.01-413.1(C)-(D): subpoena route and relief for specified willful
refusal or overcharging — official text
(accessed July 12, 2026). - Va. Code § 8.01-413.1(E): safety-risk restriction and delivery to an attorney
or authorized insurer — official text
(accessed July 12, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
Get the answer for your situation
You just read how Virginia handles this in general. Ezel applies current Virginia law to your facts and answers your specific question, with citations.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer cites the authority it relies on.