If you need to talk to someone right now, start there. The RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day at 1-800-656-4673. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Talking to a hotline does not affect your legal options, and it does not create any record you have to share with a lawyer.
When you are ready to think about next steps, it helps to know that Illinois gives massage and spa assault survivors more options than many people realize. You do not need to have reported what happened, and no one needs to have been charged. A civil claim asks a different question than a criminal case: what the business or franchise knew, what it should have known and what it did.
Write It Down While You Can
If something happened, it can help to record the date, the location, the therapist's name as it appeared on your booking and what you remember. Keep your booking confirmation, receipt and any messages you exchanged with the spa.
The spa has records of its own. Those usually include appointment logs, intake forms, therapist schedules and any earlier complaints. Whether you report to the police or to the state licensing agency is entirely your choice.
Why It Is Hard to Trust Your Own Memory
Assault during a massage happens in a setting where undressing and physical contact are expected. That is exactly what makes people doubt themselves afterward. Most of these assaults also happen without a witness. They tend to come to light later, when a survivor tells a friend or partner, reads that the same therapist has been accused by someone else or sees a disciplinary notice.
The State Has a File on Every Therapist
Massage therapists in Illinois are licensed by the state. That means a regulator holds a complaint and discipline file separate from anything the business kept. It is often the fastest route to establishing that a practitioner had been complained about before.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) administers the Massage Therapy Practice Act, 225 ILCS 57, with a seven-member Massage Licensing Board that advises the Department. Before Public Act 102-20 took effect on January 1, 2022, the law was titled the Massage Licensing Act, and that older name still appears on some state pages.
The Act requires anyone who performs massage for compensation to be licensed. To get a license, an applicant must be at least 18 and of good moral character, complete a Department-approved massage therapy program of at least 600 hours and pass an approved competency exam. Every applicant's fingerprints are sent to the Illinois State Police and checked against state police and FBI criminal history databases. Renewal requires 25 hours of continuing education, and one of those hours must cover domestic violence and sexual assault awareness.
How to Check a Therapist Privately
You can look up a therapist yourself, without telling anyone. IDFPR's Check License page links to the Professional Regulation License Look Up, where you can search by name or license number. IDFPR says the single-license lookup is updated daily. The Enforcement Actions page links to consolidated disciplinary reports that list actions against licensees with a date and brief synopsis. To get the full disciplinary file on an individual, IDFPR says requests go through its Freedom of Information Act process, addressed to the Department's FOIA officer.
The Act also puts the license number in front of clients. Section 32 requires each licensee to display the license, with the number visible, at every place they practice, and to show it with an employer photo badge or a government photo ID if a client asks. Section 50 requires the license number on every advertisement and makes it a misdemeanor for any person or business to advertise massage unless the provider is licensed.
Not finding a license is worth knowing, but it is not always the end of the story. Some professionals may perform massage within their own training, such as nurses, cosmetologists and estheticians, and certain bodywork, like reflexology confined to the feet, hands and ears without disrobing, is exempt. A spa that put an unlicensed person in a treatment room is a separate problem, and Section 45 lets IDFPR treat an unlicensed business owner who employs unlicensed practitioners as a licensee for discipline.
What the Law Says About Sexual Misconduct
Section 45 lists the grounds for IDFPR to refuse, suspend, revoke or otherwise discipline a license. They include immoral conduct related to the licensee's practice, such as sexual abuse, sexual misconduct or sexual exploitation. The Department can also impose fines up to $10,000 for each violation.
A conviction for prostitution, rape, sexual misconduct or any crime that requires registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act means the Department must revoke the license. The conviction permanently bars the therapist from practicing massage therapy in Illinois.
Charges can also lead to a chaperone order. When a licensed therapist is charged with certain offenses, including battery against a patient based on sexual conduct during treatment, the prosecutor must notify IDFPR. Within five business days, the Secretary must order that the therapist practice only with a chaperone, who must give every patient written notice. Patients sign an acknowledgment. If the therapist is not convicted, the order is vacated and removed from the record. Because of this rule, some clients first learn of a pending case through that written notice.
Before IDFPR disciplines a license under Section 45, the therapist receives written notice of the charges and a hearing.
A License Case Is Not Compensation
IDFPR decides whether someone may keep practicing. It does not award you anything, and you do not need an IDFPR finding before bringing a civil claim. The discipline record can still matter in a civil case, because it may show what the spa was told and when.
Who a Civil Claim Is Brought Against
A claim is usually brought against the business or franchise, not only the individual. Negligent hiring is the theory that most often carries it, though several theories usually run together. Which fits depends on your facts. Because the business is usually private, the Tort Immunity rules for Illinois public bodies do not apply in the same way, and the questions are the ordinary institutional liability questions under Illinois law.
Many spa chains are franchises. The local franchisee often owns the location and hires and schedules the therapists. The national franchisor licenses its name and sells the operating system: the booking platform, training and manuals. The local owner is the employer, so hiring, screening, training and negligent supervision questions go to it first.
Whether the franchisor can also be a defendant is a separate legal question. It generally turns on how much control the franchisor had, or kept the right to have, over who could be hired, which background checks were required, how complaints were reported and handled and what happened to a therapist after a complaint. A second question is whether the brand presented itself so a client reasonably believed they were dealing with the company itself. Both may be in frame, especially where the franchisor set the hiring and safety standards. Illinois courts answer these questions from the facts and documents, so nothing should be assumed at the start. Those documents, which usually sit with the companies, include the franchise agreement, the operations manual, any complaint or incident reporting system and records of what each company knew about the therapist before your appointment.
Questions People Ask
Do I need to have reported it? No. A civil claim requires no police report, no charge and no conviction. Most of the people we speak to never reported.
Does someone have to have been convicted? No. Civil cases use a lower standard of proof and are usually brought against the institution rather than the individual.
It was a long time ago. That is the norm in this work, not the exception. Your age at the time, who was responsible and the particular facts govern it. Timing should be checked with a lawyer.
How do I check whether my massage therapist was licensed? Search the name or license number in IDFPR's Professional Regulation License Look Up, reached from the Check License page. Licensed therapists must display their license with the number visible and show it if asked.
Can I file with IDFPR and also bring a civil claim? Yes. IDFPR's process is about the license. A civil claim is about compensation from those responsible, usually the business. One does not depend on the other.
The spa was part of a national chain. Who would the claim be against? Usually the local company that owned the location and employed the therapist. Whether the franchisor can also be named depends on how much control it had over hiring, screening and complaint handling, which the franchise documents show.
If You Contact Us
Nothing is set in motion by asking a question. You speak to a person, not a form, and you do not have to describe what happened. We look into which business had a duty, what it knew, what records exist and whether a claim can still be brought, at no cost to you. We tell you plainly what is possible, and you decide. If you decide not to go ahead, that is the end of it, and what you told us stays confidential. If you go ahead, we carry the filings, deadlines, records and insurers, and steps can be taken to protect your identity in the court record.
Speak With Us in Chicago
Ervin Nevitt is a partner at Coplan + Crane, admitted in Illinois since 2014. Calls to (708) 671-6858 are answered 24 hours a day, every day. The office is at 60 W Randolph St, Suite 333, Chicago, IL 60601. Nothing you say is shared with anyone else. Learn more: https://survivorsofabuseil.com/massage-spa-sexual-abuse-lawyer-il/
Attorney advertising. This post is general information, not legal advice.
