Insurance and Personal Injury Claims with Foreign Medical Records: What Insurers and Solicitors Need Translated

In a 2025 decision, the Financial Ombudsman Service backed a travel insurer that would not progress a claim for ten days in hospital abroad. The policyholder had supplied hospital reports, but "other evidence that an insurer would expect to see, such as receipts, wasn't available", and he refused consent for the insurer to contact the hospital.

The lesson for anyone claiming on foreign records: the claims handler must be able to read them, match them to the invoices and verify them.

Below: which claims rely on foreign records, what insurers can ask for, translating a medical invoice, foreign records in a personal injury claim, what the expert and the other side see, and time limits.

Which insurance claims rely on foreign medical records?

Any claim where the illness, injury or medical history happened abroad:

Travel policies spell out the evidence. One UK policy wording, Virgin Money's (underwritten by AWP), asks for "Medical evidence from the treating doctor to confirm the illness or injury and treatment given, including hospital admission and discharge dates", and for "Original receipts and accounts for all out-of-pocket expenses". It also tells you to call its 24-hour emergency medical service if you are admitted to hospital or medical fees are likely to exceed £1,000, and says that "all communications and documentation in relation to this policy will be in English."

Life and critical illness insurers can check records from before the policy started, because the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 requires consumers "to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer." A summarised foreign history section can look like something left out, so translate it whole. For a death abroad, see our death certificate translation guide.

Do UK insurers accept foreign medical records?

Yes, but they must be able to read and check them. The FCA's insurance conduct rules require an insurer to "handle claims promptly and fairly", to "provide reasonable guidance to help a policyholder make a claim" and not to "unreasonably reject a claim" (ICOBS 8.1.1R).

Two practical consequences:

• Expect verification. Insurers may contact the treating hospital, which needs your consent. In the 2025 ombudsman decision above, the insurer could not progress the claim "without Mr M's consent", and the ombudsman did not uphold his complaint.
• Ask before you translate. The assistance team may already hold the hospital's reports. Ask which documents need translating, in what format, and whether the insurer will arrange or reimburse it.

If a claim is rejected over documents, complain to the insurer first. The Financial Ombudsman Service says a business has "up to 8 weeks to consider a complaint", and you then have 6 months from the final response to bring the complaint to the ombudsman.

What translation rules do insurers set?

Their own. Aviva, for example, says overseas proof of a no-claims discount should "be in English", accepts "an English translation of the document, alongside the original version", but adds: "the translation must be by an authorised/sworn translator with the appropriate seal/signature of authenticity."

That rule concerns motor insurance, not medical records, but it shows the vocabulary you may meet. The UK has no sworn translators (see who can certify a translation), so ask the insurer in writing what it will accept before you order. If it insists on a sworn translator in the country where the document was issued, that translation has to be done there, and Official Translations does not provide it.

What should a translated medical invoice show?

Every line, as issued. Claims handlers check items against the policy, so a total alone is not enough:

• The provider: hospital or clinic name, address, tax or registration number.
• The patient as named in the passport, with the case or admission number.
• Each item: date, service or procedure code, description, quantity, unit price and line total.
• Taxes, discounts and deposits, each as shown.
• Payment status: paid, unpaid, paid by card, settled by the assistance company.
• Currency exactly as written, with numbers in English notation.
• Stamps, signatures and receipt numbers.

Our medical records translation guide covers units, drug names and abbreviations.

How are foreign medical records used in a personal injury claim?

Through the pre-action stage first, then as evidence for the medical expert. The Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims is "primarily designed for personal injury claims which are likely to be allocated to the fast track", and its spirit should still be followed for higher-value claims. Foreign records enter in three common ways:

1. An accident abroad on a package holiday. Under regulation 15(2) of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, the organiser "is liable to the traveller for the performance of the travel services" in the package, whoever performs them. The foreign hospital's records become the core medical evidence.
2. A defendant or insurer abroad. Where the accident happened outside England and Wales, or the defendant is outside the jurisdiction, the protocol's response periods "should normally be extended up to 42 days and six months", instead of 21 days to reply and three months to investigate.
3. A UK accident with a medical history abroad. The expert's enclosures include GP records, where earlier conditions show up; if you lived abroad before, expect requests for your records from there.

The protocol is clear about who gathers the records: "the claimant's solicitor will organise access to relevant medical records". Its specimen letter to the medical expert lists the enclosures as "1. Hospital Records 2. GP records 3. Statement of Events". If those records are in another language, the expert can only use them in translation.

Before instructing an expert, a party gives the other side a list of suitable experts, and the other side has 14 days to object. Written questions to the expert must be put within 28 days of service of the report and only to clarify it.

What will the medical expert and the other side see?

Everything the expert relied on, potentially including your translations. Practice Direction 35 says expert evidence "should be the independent product of the expert uninfluenced by the pressures of litigation", and the report must "give details of any literature or other material which has been relied on in making the report" (para 3.2(2)). Under CPR 31.14(2), a party "may apply for an order for inspection of any document mentioned in an expert's report" which has not already been disclosed.

So a translation of a foreign hospital file is not a private working aid. Four rules follow:

• Translate each record the expert relies on in full, with every stamp, handwritten note and result.
• Certify each translation, identifying the original precisely.
• Keep one spelling for the claimant, the hospitals and the doctors across every document.
• Put each translation beside its original in the bundle, as the court guides expect.

Our court translation guide covers bundles, disputed translations and costs. On costs, CPR 45.59 lets the court allow "any interpreters' or translators' fees" as a disbursement in fast track claims started under the low-value road traffic and employers' and public liability protocols, and any disbursement "reasonably incurred" in other fast track claims; the rules forum by forum are in HMCTS translation requirements.

How long do you have to claim?

Less time than a slow translation plan assumes. In England and Wales, the limitation period for personal injury is "three years from" the date the cause of action accrued or, if later, the date of knowledge (Limitation Act 1980, section 11(4)).

An accident abroad can bring foreign law with it. Under the Rome II Regulation, the law of a tort claim is usually "the law of the country in which the damage occurs", unless both parties were habitually resident in the same country. Where foreign law applies, the Foreign Limitation Periods Act 1984 says "the law of that other country relating to limitation shall apply", and that period can be shorter. Ask your solicitor early, and order translations of the core records as soon as you have them.

Common mistakes with foreign medical records in claims

• An invoice translated as a total, without the items the policy is checked against.
• Currency converted by the translator, so the figures no longer match the receipts.
• A summarised history section in a life or critical illness claim.
• Refusing consent for the insurer to contact the treating hospital.
• Selective translation of a hospital file the expert relies on, exposed when the other side inspects it.
• Names spelled three ways across the passport, the hospital file and the claim form.

Checklist: foreign medical records for a claim

Questions people ask