How does a client in Ireland get a copy of their medical records?

By a data subject access request under Article 15 GDPR to the hospital, GP or clinic. Article 15(3) requires the controller to provide a copy of the personal data, the first copy free of charge, and in a commonly used electronic form where the request is made electronically. The controller must respond without undue delay and within one month, extendable by two further months for complex requests (Article 12(3)).

Does an Injuries Resolution Board application need a medical report?

Yes. Section 11(3)(c) of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 lists, among the documents that must accompany an application, a report prepared by a medical practitioner who has treated the claimant in respect of the personal injuries, the subject of the relevant claim, in relation to those injuries.

What is the limitation period for a personal injuries claim in Ireland?

Two years from the date of accrual or the date of knowledge. Section 7 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 amended the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 by substituting 2 years for three years in sections 3, 4 and 5. Making an application to the Board stops the clock while the application is being processed.

How much does a medical chronology cost in Ireland?

There is no published agency rate for chronology work in Ireland; the reference point is paralegal pay, which recruitment data put at roughly €28,300–€47,500 a year (Indeed, PayScale, Morgan McKinley, 2026), billed to the file at a multiple. Med-Legal prices per document instead: one complete chronology and summary is one unit, whatever the page count.

Medical chronologies for Irish personal injury solicitors: GDPR access, the Injuries Resolution Board application, and the two-year limit

For personal injury and medical negligence solicitors, legal executives and medico-legal experts · ~6 min read · quotes from the GDPR, the PIAB Act 2003 and the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004

Step one: getting the records — Article 15 GDPR

Ireland has no separate medical-records access statute for private practice; the route is the GDPR right of access, supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Freedom of Information Act 2014 for public hospitals. The right itself:

"The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning him or her are being processed, and, where that is the case, access to the personal data"
GDPR, Article 15(1)

And the part that saves the client money and the solicitor an OCR step:

"The controller shall provide a copy of the personal data undergoing processing. For any further copies requested by the data subject, the controller may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs. Where the data subject makes the request by electronic means, and unless otherwise requested by the data subject, the information shall be provided in a commonly used electronic form."
GDPR, Article 15(3)

The first copy is free. Sent by email, it comes back as a PDF. Under Article 12(3) the controller must act without undue delay and within one month, extendable by two further months for complex or numerous requests — so a hospital that treats a full chart as "complex" can lawfully take a quarter of a year. Send the request the week the client instructs.

Step two: the Injuries Resolution Board will not open the file without a report

Almost every personal injuries claim in Ireland must go through the Board (renamed the Injuries Resolution Board by the Personal Injuries Resolution Board Act 2022) before proceedings can issue. The 2003 Act makes a treating practitioner's report a condition of the application itself:

"(c) a report prepared by a medical practitioner who has treated the claimant in respect of the personal injuries, the subject of the relevant claim, in relation to those injuries"
Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003, s. 11(3)(c)

That report is written by a busy clinician from whatever records are put in front of them. A treating GP or consultant sent a dated, page-cited chronology of the client's attendances, investigations and treatment writes a fuller and faster report than one sent a request letter and a copy chart — and the Board's assessors, who work from the report, see the same benefit. The same chronology then briefs the independent expert if the matter proceeds to court.

Step three: the two-year limit

The timetable that makes all of this urgent is s. 7 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, which shortened the limitation period for personal injuries actions:

"The Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 is amended by— (a) the substitution in subsection (1) of section 3 of “2 years” for “three years”"
Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, s. 7(a)

Two years, from accrual or the date of knowledge, within which the records must be obtained, the report written, and the application lodged with the Board (which stops the clock while the application is processed). A three-month subject access response and a six-week wait for a consultant's report consume a quarter of it. The chronology step is the one part of the chain a solicitor can make fast.

What the chronology step costs

Ireland has no published agency rate for chronology work; the honest reference point is paralegal pay, which the 2026 recruitment data (Indeed, PayScale, Morgan McKinley) put at roughly €28,300–€47,500 a year, billed to the file at a multiple. At 50–100 pages an hour a 1,000-page record set is ten to twenty hours of that person's week before any opinion is formed, and the exercise repeats when supplementary records arrive.

Per-document pricing changes the shape of that cost. One complete chronology and summary is one unit whatever the page count; a paginated, indexed booklet is four. Put your own page count into the free cost calculator to see the two side by side.

What a chronology built for Irish practice looks like

Every line cited. Date, provider, event, and the document and page it came from — so the treating practitioner, the Board's assessor and the independent expert can each verify any line against the chart.
Grouped by provider, continuously paginated. A&E, GP, imaging, physiotherapy, each in its own block, with page numbers running across the whole set, ready for the booklet of pleadings and medical reports.
Pre-existing conditions surfaced, not buried. The prior history the respondent's insurer will find anyway, listed up front with its source pages.
Gaps flagged. Missing date ranges and providers referenced but not produced — the shortlist for the next Article 15 request.
Solicitor review before use. An AI-assisted draft is a starting point. The judgment about liability, causation and quantum stays with the solicitor and the expert.

How Med-Legal fits. Upload the records you already hold; get back a source-cited medical chronology and summary with every fact traced to its page, plus a continuously paginated, indexed booklet — priced per document, not per hour, with the first ten documents free. The solicitor reviews and approves before anything is used.

Try it free on a live file →

Quotations are from Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 and the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 as published on the electronic Irish Statute Book (enacted text). The Board was renamed the Injuries Resolution Board by the Personal Injuries Resolution Board Act 2022; the rules of court and the Board's own rules add their own requirements — check the current text for any matter where precise compliance matters. General information for legal professionals, not legal advice.