Many people who are assaulted on a massage table spend days, months or even years asking themselves the same question: was that really part of the treatment? A massage is one of the few situations where undressing and physical contact are expected. That expectation is exactly what makes survivors doubt their own experience afterward. If you are caught in that uncertainty, you are not alone, and your doubt does not mean nothing happened.
Illinois gives survivors real tools to find answers. You do not need to have reported the assault, and no one needs to have been charged. A civil claim works differently from a criminal case. It asks what the business or franchise knew, what it should have known and what it did.
How These Cases Usually Come to Light
Most assaults in a treatment room have no witness. That is why they so often surface later. A survivor may tell a friend or partner and hear their own story reflected back. They may read that the same therapist has been accused by someone else. They may come across a disciplinary notice. And because of a specific Illinois rule, some clients first learn about a pending criminal case through a written notice handed to them at their next appointment.
The State's Complaint File
Massage therapists in Illinois are licensed by the state. A regulator, not the spa, keeps a complaint and discipline file on each therapist, separate from anything the business kept. For many survivors, that file is the fastest way to establish that a practitioner had been complained about before.
The law behind it is the Massage Therapy Practice Act, 225 ILCS 57. It was called the Massage Licensing Act until Public Act 102-20 took effect on January 1, 2022, and some state pages still use the old name. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) administers the Act, and a seven-member Massage Licensing Board advises the Department.
The Act says anyone who performs massage for compensation must be licensed by the Department. Applicants must be at least 18 and of good moral character. They must 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. To renew, therapists need 25 hours of continuing education, including one hour on domestic violence and sexual assault awareness.
What Happens When a Therapist Is Charged
Section 45 of the Act includes a rule that directly affects clients. 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 the therapist to practice only with a chaperone. The chaperone has to give every patient written notice of that order, and patients sign an acknowledgment. If the therapist is not convicted, the order is vacated and removed from the record.
Section 45 also lists the grounds for discipline more broadly. IDFPR can refuse, suspend, revoke or otherwise discipline a license for immoral conduct connected to the therapist's practice, such as sexual abuse, sexual misconduct or sexual exploitation. The Department can also impose fines of up to $10,000 per violation.
A conviction has a permanent effect. The Department must revoke the license of a therapist convicted of prostitution, rape, sexual misconduct or any crime requiring registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act. That conviction permanently bars the person from practicing massage therapy in Illinois.
Before IDFPR disciplines a license under Section 45, the therapist receives written notice of the charges and a hearing.
A License Case Does Not Replace a Civil Claim
IDFPR's job is deciding whether someone can keep practicing. It does not award survivors compensation, and you do not need an IDFPR finding before bringing a civil claim. The discipline record still matters in a civil case, because it may show what the spa was told and when.
Checking Quietly
You can look up a therapist without telling anyone. On IDFPR's Check License page, you will find a link to the Professional Regulation License Look Up. Search by name or license number. IDFPR says the single-license lookup is updated daily. The Enforcement Actions page links to consolidated disciplinary reports listing actions against licensees with a date and short synopsis. For a full disciplinary file on one person, IDFPR says requests go through its Freedom of Information Act process to the Department's FOIA officer.
The Act also makes license numbers visible. Section 32 requires every licensee to display the license with the number showing at each 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 person providing it is licensed.
If you cannot find a license, that is meaningful but not always the final word. The Act exempts some professionals who may perform massage within their own training, such as nurses, cosmetologists and estheticians, along with certain bodywork like reflexology confined to the feet, hands and ears without disrobing. A spa that placed 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 to Write Down Now
If something happened, it can help to record the date, the location, the therapist's name as it appeared on your booking and everything you remember. Hold on to your booking confirmation, receipt and any messages with the spa. The spa has its own records as well, including appointment logs, intake forms, therapist schedules and any earlier complaints. Whether you report to the police or to IDFPR is your choice.
Who Is Responsible
Massage assault claims are usually brought against the business or franchise, not only the therapist. The theory that most often carries these cases is negligent hiring. In practice, several theories run together, and the right one depends on your facts.
The business is usually a private company, 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 ones under Illinois law.
When the spa is a franchise, both the local operator and the franchisor may be in the picture, especially where the franchisor set the hiring and safety standards the operator was meant to follow. The local franchisee usually owns the location and hires and schedules therapists. The franchisor licenses its name and sells the operating system: the booking platform, training and manuals.
As the employer, the local owner faces the first questions about hiring, screening, training and negligent supervision. Whether the franchisor can also be a defendant depends on how much control it had, or kept the right to have, over hiring, background checks, how client complaints were reported and handled and what happened to a therapist after a complaint. Another question is whether the brand presented itself so a client reasonably believed they were dealing with the national company. Illinois courts decide these questions on the facts and documents, so nothing should be assumed at the outset. Those documents usually 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. There is no requirement for a police report, a charge or a 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 one and is usually brought against the institution.
It was a long time ago. That is the norm in this work. 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 therapist was licensed? Use IDFPR's Professional Regulation License Look Up from the Check License page. Licensed therapists must display their license with the number visible and show it when asked.
Can I complain to IDFPR and also bring a civil claim? Yes. IDFPR handles the license. A civil claim seeks compensation from those responsible, usually the business. Neither depends on the other.
The spa was a national chain. Who is the claim against? Usually the local company that owned the location and employed the therapist. Whether the franchisor can be named depends on its control over hiring, screening and complaint handling, shown by the franchise documents.
What Contacting Us Involves
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. That costs you nothing. We tell you plainly what is possible, and you decide. If you stop, it ends there and 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 Ervin Nevitt
Ervin Nevitt is a partner at Coplan + Crane, admitted in Illinois since 2014. Call (708) 671-6858; calls 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.
If you need to talk to someone right now, call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. It is free, confidential and open 24 hours a day. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. A hotline call does not affect your legal options or create a record you must share with us. For more information, visit: https://survivorsofabuseil.com/massage-spa-sexual-abuse-lawyer-il/
Attorney advertising. This post is general information, not legal advice.
