After a sexual assault during a massage, survivors in Illinois often hear about two very different paths. One is a complaint to the state agency that licenses massage therapists. The other is a civil claim against the business that put that therapist in the room. These are separate processes with separate goals, and understanding the difference can help you decide what, if anything, you want to do.
Neither path requires a police report. You do not need to have reported the assault at all, and no one needs to have been charged with a crime. 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.
Path One: The State Licensing Process
Massage therapists in Illinois are licensed by the state, so a regulator holds a complaint and discipline file that exists apart from anything the spa kept. That file is often the fastest route to establishing that a therapist had been complained about before.
The agency is the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). It administers the Massage Therapy Practice Act, 225 ILCS 57, with advice from a seven-member Massage Licensing Board. The Act was called the Massage Licensing Act before Public Act 102-20 took effect on January 1, 2022, and that older title still shows up on some state pages.
The Act requires anyone who performs massage for compensation to be licensed. Applicants must be at least 18, of good moral character, finish a Department-approved program of at least 600 hours and pass an approved competency exam. Their fingerprints are sent to the Illinois State Police and checked against state police and FBI criminal history databases. Renewing a license requires 25 hours of continuing education, one of which must address domestic violence and sexual assault awareness.
What IDFPR Can Do
Section 45 lists the grounds for IDFPR to refuse, suspend, revoke or otherwise discipline a license. Those grounds include immoral conduct related to the therapist's practice, such as sexual abuse, sexual misconduct or sexual exploitation. IDFPR may also fine a therapist up to $10,000 for each violation.
Some outcomes are mandatory. If a therapist is convicted of prostitution, rape, sexual misconduct or any crime requiring registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act, the Department must revoke the license. The conviction is a permanent bar to practicing massage therapy in Illinois.
Charges alone can also trigger action. 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. The chaperone must give every patient written notice of the order, and patients sign an acknowledgment. If no conviction follows, the order is vacated and removed from the record.
Before IDFPR disciplines a license under Section 45, the therapist gets written notice of the charges and a hearing.
What IDFPR Cannot Do
IDFPR decides whether someone can keep practicing. It does not award compensation to survivors. That is the role of a civil claim.
Path Two: A Civil Claim Against the Business
A civil claim seeks compensation from those responsible, usually the business. It is typically brought against the business or franchise, rather than only against the individual therapist. The theory that most often carries these claims is negligent hiring, though several theories usually run together. Which one fits depends on your facts, not on a category.
The responsible business is usually private, so the Tort Immunity rules that govern claims against Illinois public bodies do not apply in the same way. The liability questions are the ordinary institutional liability questions under Illinois law.
How the Two Paths Connect
You do not need an IDFPR finding before bringing a civil claim. One does not depend on the other. Still, the discipline record can matter a great deal in a civil case, because it may show what the spa was told and when.
Researching the Therapist Yourself
You can check a therapist without telling anyone. IDFPR's Check License page links to the Professional Regulation License Look Up, which can be searched by name or license number. IDFPR says the single-license lookup is updated daily. The Department's Enforcement Actions page links to consolidated disciplinary reports listing actions against licensees with a date and brief synopsis. For 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.
License numbers are meant to be easy to find. 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.
If you cannot find a massage license, that is worth knowing, but it may not settle things. Nurses, cosmetologists and estheticians may perform massage within their own training, and some bodywork, such as reflexology confined to the feet, hands and ears without disrobing, is exempt. A spa that put an unlicensed person in a treatment room has a separate problem. Section 45 lets IDFPR treat an unlicensed business owner who employs unlicensed practitioners as a licensee for discipline.
When the Spa Is a Franchise
Many spa chains are franchises. The location is often owned by a local company, the franchisee, that hires and schedules therapists. The national brand, the franchisor, licenses its name and sells the operating system, including the booking platform, training and manuals.
The local owner is the employer, so questions about hiring, screening, training and negligent supervision of staff go to it first. Whether the franchisor can also be a defendant is a separate legal question. Generally, it 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 that a client reasonably believed they were dealing with the national company. Both the local operator and the franchisor may be in frame, particularly where the franchisor set the hiring and safety standards the operator was supposed to follow. How Illinois courts resolve this depends on the facts and documents, and it should not be assumed either way at the start.
Those documents usually sit with the companies: 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.
Why Survivors Often Wait
Massage involves undressing and physical contact, which is exactly what makes people doubt themselves afterward. Most treatment room assaults also have no witness. Cases tend to surface later, when a survivor tells a friend or partner, reads that the same therapist was accused by someone else or sees a disciplinary notice. Because of the chaperone rule, some clients first learn of a pending case from the written notice they receive.
If something happened, it can help to note the date, location, the therapist's name as it appeared on your booking and what you remember. Keep your booking confirmation, receipt and any messages with the spa. The spa has appointment logs, intake forms, therapist schedules and records of any earlier complaints. Reporting to police or IDFPR is your choice.
Common Questions
Can I file a complaint with IDFPR and also bring a civil claim? Yes. They are separate. IDFPR's process is about the license. A civil claim is about compensation from those responsible. One does not depend on the other.
Do I need to have reported it? No. A civil claim requires no police report, no charge and no conviction. Most people we speak with never reported.
Does someone have to have been convicted? No. A civil case uses a lower standard of proof than a criminal case and is usually brought against the institution.
It was a long time ago. That is the norm. Your age at the time, who was responsible and the particular facts govern it, and timing should be checked with a lawyer.
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 its control over hiring, screening and complaint handling, which the franchise documents answer.
What Happens If You Contact Us
Asking a question sets nothing in motion. You speak with a person, not a form, and you do not have to describe what happened to talk. We look into which business had a duty, what it knew, what records exist and whether a claim can still be brought. That work costs you nothing. We tell you plainly what is possible, and you decide. If you do not go ahead, that is the end of it and your information 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.
Contact Us
Ervin Nevitt is a partner at Coplan + Crane and was admitted in Illinois in 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.
For support right now, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is free and confidential at 1-800-656-4673, available 24 hours a day. In immediate danger, call 911. Talking to a hotline does not affect your legal options.
Attorney advertising. This post is general information, not legal advice.
