In short
Article 35 of the Workmen’s Accident Compensation System Act does two things at once. First, it protects the file: reports acquired under this Act by the Industrial Commission, by the Fund’s Administrator or by an official charged with a duty under the Act shall be considered private when the Commission or the Administrator so resolves, and an official or employee who reveals them, except by order of a competent authority, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour punished with a fine of no more than five hundred dollars or jail of no more than six months. And second, it leaves open the door that matters to the injured worker: nothing in that article shall be understood to prohibit inspection by the interested party or their attorney of the reports and other documents relating to their case. The same article authorises the Industrial Commission to periodically destroy appeal files definitively closed five years or more ago, regulates the summons by edict where the party cannot be located — once a week for two consecutive weeks, and sixty days to appear — and declares work-accident and occupational-illness cases closed for all legal purposes three years after the definitive closing, save the delayed-effect conditions in Article 3(a).
What is it?
It is Article 35 of Act 45-1935: the confidentiality rule for the Fund’s and the Industrial Commission’s reports, the injured worker’s and their attorney’s right to inspect their own case, and the rules on closing, summons by edict and destruction of files.
Who can do it?
The confidentiality covers reports acquired under this Act by the Industrial Commission, by the State Insurance Fund Administrator, or by an official or employee charged with a duty under this Act, when the Commission or the Administrator so resolve. The right of inspection belongs to “the interested party or their attorney”, and it covers the reports and other documents relating to their case.
Requirements
- To inspect: being the interested party or their attorney, and the documents being the reports and other documents relating to their own case.Verified against the official source
- For the reports to be private: that the Industrial Commission or the State Insurance Fund Administrator so resolve. The Act conditions the privacy on that determination.Verified against the official source
Documents you need
Information pending verification.
Cost
Step by step
Step 1: The reports are private when it is resolved that they are
Article 35 opens with a condition worth reading slowly. “Reports acquired under the provisions of this Act by the Industrial Commission, by the State Insurance Fund Administrator or by an official or employee charged with the performance of a duty under this Act shall be considered private in character, when the Industrial Commission or the State Insurance Fund Administrator so resolves.” Privacy is not automatic by the Act’s text: it depends on the Commission or the Administrator so resolving.
Step 2: Revealing them is a misdemeanour
The sanction is in the same sentence and falls on the insider, not on third parties. “Any official or employee who reveals such reports, except by order of a competent authority, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and, upon conviction, shall be subject to a fine of no more than five hundred (500) dollars or jail of no more than six (6) months.” The exception — “by order of a competent authority” — is what lets a court order disclosure.
Step 3: But you may see your own case
The article’s second paragraph is short and is the one to quote when a counter tells you the file is confidential. “Nothing contained in this Article shall be understood to prohibit inspection by the interested party or their attorney of the reports and other documents relating to their case.” The first paragraph’s confidentiality protects the file from third parties; it does not protect it from you.
Step 4: Five years and appeal files may be destroyed
The article authorises the Industrial Commission “to destroy, periodically, all those appeal files that are five (5) or more years past having been definitively closed through the Industrial Commission’s final resolution”. The clock runs from the definitive closing by final resolution, not from the accident date or the filing. If you need a copy of an old appeal file, that period is the reason not to leave it for later.
Step 5: If they cannot find you: the edict
The Act resolves the case of a file that cannot move because the party does not appear. If a case is set for a public hearing and the interested party or parties do not appear because it was not possible to locate them, “the Industrial Commission shall issue a summons by edict once a week, for two consecutive weeks, published in one of the newspapers of greatest circulation in the Commonwealth”. That is: one publication a week, two weeks running, in a large-circulation newspaper. Which is why keeping your address current in the file matters.
Step 6: Sixty days to appear, or the case is closed
The consequence of not answering the edict is in the same sentence: “if despite this the party or parties do not appear within a term of sixty (60) days, the Industrial Commission is empowered and authorised to close that case definitively and proceed to its destruction in due course, as this Act provides”. Definitive closing and, afterwards, destruction.
Step 7: Three years from the definitive closing
The article closes with the general closing rule, repeating the one already in Article 3(a). “Observing what other laws provide on the conservation and preservation of documents, all work-accident and occupational-illness cases shall be understood to be closed for all legal purposes once three (3) years have run from their definitive closing.” Three years from the definitive closing, and then the case is closed for all legal purposes.
Step 8: And the nine conditions that do not close
The exception is the one that saves slow-illness cases. “Excepted from the above are those injuries or conditions whose effects may occur after a longer lapse, as mentioned in Article 3(a) of this Act.” That Article 3(a) lists nine: cytotoxics — as the text has it — asbestos exposure, mercury, lead, cadmium, radium, AIDS, hepatitis C and beryllium exposure, evaluated per the established medical protocols. We publish them in the guide on dietas and transitory disability.
Step 9: Nobody on the inside may represent you
It is worth knowing a neighbouring rule, Article 34, because it explains why nobody at the agency can take your case. “No member of the Industrial Commission and no official, employee or agent in the service of the Industrial Commission or of the State Fund Administrator shall represent any person, or be in any way interested in any dealing, claim or matter within the competence of the State Fund Administrator or of the Industrial Commission.” The sanction is “dismissal and permanent disqualification from serving in any part of the workers’ compensation service”, and the prohibition does not cover purely official acts done by virtue of the post.
Where to do it
Inspection is requested where the file is: at the State Insurance Fund if the case is before the Administrator, or at the Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico if it is on appeal. The Act recognises the right but names no form, office or response time, and we read none, so we do not invent them here: what you can bring is the citation to Article 35’s second paragraph. The summons by edict is issued by the Industrial Commission in a newspaper of greatest circulation in Puerto Rico.
How long it takes
What to do if something goes wrong
What this guide settles and what it does not. It settles that Article 35’s confidentiality is not a reason to deny you your own file: the second paragraph says expressly that nothing in that article prohibits inspection by the interested party or their attorney of the reports and other documents relating to their case. What it does not settle is how you ask in practice. The Act recognises the right and names no form, counter or response term, and we read none from the CFSE or the Industrial Commission, so this guide publishes no procedure. Nor did we read the other laws on conserving and preserving documents the article defers to, or Puerto Rico’s general access-to-information and privacy legislation, or the rest of Act 45-1935. One nuance worth not losing: the Act says the reports shall be private “when the Industrial Commission or the Administrator so resolves”, so privacy, per the text, depends on that determination and not on the article alone. Cost shows as free: the Act charges nothing for the inspection it grants. Processing time goes unverified: the five-year, sixty-day and three-year terms are published in the steps, but there is no term for answering an inspection request.
Common mistakes
- Accepting a refusal of your own file on confidentiality grounds: Article 35’s second paragraph says nothing in that article prohibits inspection by the interested party or their attorney.
- Believing the confidentiality covers your attorney: the Act names them expressly alongside the interested party.
- Assuming the file is private by the Act’s text alone: the article conditions it on the Industrial Commission or the Administrator so resolving.
- Thinking nobody can ever access it: the Act excepts disclosure made “by order of a competent authority”.
- Leaving a copy of an old appeal file for later: the Industrial Commission may destroy those definitively closed five or more years ago.
- Not keeping your address current in the file: if they cannot locate you, the summons is issued by edict in the newspaper.
- Ignoring an edict: if you do not appear within sixty days, the Commission may close the case definitively and destroy it.
- Counting the three years from the accident: they run from the definitive closing of the case.
- Treating an asbestos, lead, mercury, cadmium, radium, AIDS or hepatitis C case as closed: they are among the conditions Article 3(a) excepts for their delayed effect.
- Asking a Fund or Commission employee to take your case: Article 34 prohibits it on pain of dismissal and permanent disqualification.
Frequently asked questions
May I see my Fund file?
Yes. Article 35 says “nothing contained in this Article shall be understood to prohibit inspection by the interested party or their attorney of the reports and other documents relating to their case”. The first paragraph’s confidentiality protects the file from third parties, not from you.
Can a Fund employee show my file to someone else?
Not without an order from a competent authority. The Act says an official or employee who reveals those reports, except by such an order, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and subject to a fine of no more than five hundred dollars or jail of no more than six months.
How long are appeal files kept?
The Industrial Commission is empowered to periodically destroy appeal files that are five or more years past having been definitively closed through its final resolution.
I was summoned by edict. How long do I have?
Sixty days. The edict is published once a week for two consecutive weeks in one of the newspapers of greatest circulation, and if you still do not appear within sixty days, the Industrial Commission is authorised to close the case definitively and proceed to destroy it.
When is a case definitively closed?
The Act understands work-accident and occupational-illness cases to be closed for all legal purposes once three years have run from the definitive closing. Excepted are injuries or conditions whose effects may occur after a longer lapse, per Article 3(a).
Can someone from the Fund represent me in my claim?
No. Article 34 prohibits any member of the Industrial Commission and any official, employee or agent in the service of the Commission or of the Administrator from representing any person or being in any way interested in a matter within their competence, on pain of dismissal and permanent disqualification.
Official sources
These are the government pages this guide is based on.
- Comisión Industrial de Puerto Rico (CIPR)
Comisión Industrial
bvirtualogp.pr.gov
Last verified
September 1, 2026
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