Maine: Employee Personnel File Access Requirements

Written request, timing, and place

The employee or former employee must make a written request. A duly authorized
representative may conduct the review and copying. The employer must provide the
opportunity within 10 days after receiving the request unless good cause excuses
the failure.

Ordinarily, review and copying occur where the personnel files are maintained
and during normal office hours. The employer may instead arrange a more
convenient time and location. If the records are electronic, on microfiche, or
otherwise maintained in a nonpaper form, the employer must make the equipment
needed to review and copy them available.

Records and annual copies

Section 631 uses a nonexclusive definition. It includes formal and informal
evaluations, reports about character, credit, work habits, compensation and
benefits, and nonprivileged medical records or nurses' station notes in the
employer's possession. For the medical category, the section defines
"nonprivileged" by reference to material not protected from discovery or
disclosure under the listed court, evidence, workers' compensation, or similar
administrative rules.

In each calendar year, the employee or former employee may obtain one free copy
of the entire file. After that full copy, the requester may also obtain one free
copy of all material later added to the file. The person requesting any other
copies during that calendar year pays the copying cost.

Enforcement and the missing rebuttal procedure

An employer that lacks good cause and fails to provide the review-and-copy
opportunity within 10 days is subject to a $25 civil forfeiture for each day the
failure continues, capped at $500. The employee, former employee, or Department
of Labor may sue in District Court or Superior Court for equitable relief,
including an injunction. A favorable judgment may also support an award of suit
costs and a reasonable attorney's fee.

Section 631 does not provide a procedure to demand correction or removal of
disputed information or to place an employee rebuttal in the file. It also does
not set a post-termination cutoff for a former employee's express access right.

What trips people up

The 10-day rule governs the opportunity for review and copying. Good cause can
excuse a failure to meet that period, but the statute does not define good cause
or create an automatic extension of a stated length.

The free-copy allowance has two parts within a calendar year: one entire-file
copy and, after that copy, one copy of everything later added. Additional copies
are paid by the requester.

The statute covers a personnel file only if the employer has one for that
employee. It does not require an employer to create a file merely because an
employee asks for access.

Common questions

Can a former employee request the file?

Yes. Former employees are expressly included, and § 631 states no
post-termination request deadline.

May a representative review the file?

Yes. A duly authorized representative may review and copy it. The statute does
not prescribe a particular authorization form.

Must the employer mail the copies?

Section 631 requires an opportunity to review and copy at the file-maintenance
location during normal office hours, subject to a more convenient arrangement
made at the employer's discretion. It does not separately require mailing.

Can inaccurate material be corrected under this section?

Section 631 states no correction, removal, or written-rebuttal procedure.

Statutes and sources

• 26 M.R.S. § 631: written requests, eligible requesters, covered records,
  location and timing, annual free copies, nonpaper-record equipment, and
  enforcement — official text
  (accessed July 12, 2026).