Employee Personnel File Access Requirements in Virginia

At a glance

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).