Not every workplace sexual assault involves two coworkers. Sometimes the person harmed is a shopper in a store, a guest at a hotel, a client meeting a professional, a patient in a waiting room or a homeowner who let a service technician inside. In those situations, the survivor never worked for the business and is not covered by the same employment laws that protect staff. That does not leave them without options. Illinois law can hold a business responsible for the people it puts in contact with the public.
A claim of this kind does not require a police report or a criminal conviction. It examines the business behind the worker and asks what it knew, what it should have known and what it did.
Why Employment Laws Usually Do Not Apply
The Illinois Human Rights Act and federal Title VII protect employees from sexual harassment and assault on the job. When the person harmed was a customer, visitor or client rather than an employee, those statutes are generally not the route. Instead, the focus shifts to the business's decisions about whom it hired and whom it kept.
Negligent Hiring and Negligent Retention
An employer can be liable for negligently hiring or keeping on someone it knew or should have known was dangerous. Negligent hiring asks whether the business should have screened out the worker in the first place. Negligent retention asks whether the business kept the worker on after it learned, or should have learned, of a danger, such as an earlier complaint from another customer.
The Records That Reveal Knowledge
Businesses keep HR files, complaint logs and records of internal investigations. A complaint from a prior customer that was looked into and closed is still evidence that the business knew about a problem. Customer service records, incident reports and personnel files can show whether warning signs were ignored.
Patterns across customers matter too. If several clients complained about the same worker's comments or conduct before your assault, the business had multiple chances to act. Online reviews, emails to a manager, calls to a corporate hotline and notes from a franchise owner can all reflect what the company was told. Gathering those pieces helps answer the central question in a negligent retention case: once the business had reason to suspect a danger, what did it actually do?
Claims Against the Individual
Separate from any claim against the business, a survivor can bring a civil claim for assault or battery directly against the person who committed the act. That claim is generally subject to a two-year limit for adults, which is much shorter than the rules for childhood abuse.
The Gender Violence Act
Illinois' Gender Violence Act, 740 ILCS 82, creates a separate civil claim for gender-related violence. It reaches anyone who personally committed the violence or personally encouraged or assisted it, and it includes a distinct section addressing employers with its own conditions and limitation period. Whether it fits a customer or visitor case depends on the facts, and its deadlines vary by category, so it should be considered early.
Private Businesses
Stores, hotels, service companies and professional offices are almost always privately owned. Illinois reserves its Tort Immunity framework for public bodies, so a privately owned business generally cannot rely on it in the same way. The case instead turns on standard questions about what the company knew and how it responded.
Settings Where This Happens
These cases can arise wherever a business sends workers into contact with the public: retail stores, hotels, gyms, offices, transportation services and in-home service calls such as repairs, deliveries or installations. In each setting, the business decides who represents it and how closely to supervise them.
Questions We Hear
I wasn't an employee. Do I still have a case? Possibly. The business may be liable for negligently hiring or retaining a worker it knew or should have known was dangerous.
It happened a while ago and I didn't report it. Many survivors wait. A police report is not required, but adult deadlines can be short, so the dates matter.
How much does it cost to ask? Nothing. Cases are taken on a contingency fee, so there is no fee unless there is a recovery.
I only remember fragments. That is common. Claims draw heavily on the business's own records.
What Contacting Us Looks Like
You can call just to understand whether the business might be responsible. A person answers, and you will not need to describe the assault in detail. If you want us to look further, we investigate without charge which business employed the worker, what it knew, which records exist and which deadlines apply. We tell you candidly what we find, and you decide. If you stop, everything you shared stays confidential. If you go on, we handle the filings, deadlines, records and the company's insurers, with options to protect your identity in court.
Get in Touch
Ervin Nevitt has been a member of the Illinois bar since 2014 and is a partner at Coplan + Crane. You can reach the firm day or night at (708) 671-6858, or visit 60 W Randolph St, Suite 333, Chicago, IL 60601.
RAINN provides free, private crisis support at 1-800-656-4673, 24 hours a day. If you face immediate danger, call 911. A call to RAINN does not change your legal options. To find more helpful info, visit: https://survivorsofabuseil.com/workplace-sexual-assault-lawyer-il/
Attorney advertising. The material above is general and does not constitute legal advice.
