Many adults who attended Illinois boarding schools carry memories they have never shared. Some are in their thirties. Some are in their sixties or seventies. If you are only now ready to talk about abuse at a boarding school, you are not unusual. That is the norm in this work rather than the exception.
What governs whether a claim can be brought is your age at the time, who was responsible, and the particular facts. You do not need to have reported it, and nobody needs to have been charged.
Attorney Ervin Nevitt, a partner at Coplan + Crane, reviews these cases. He holds Illinois bar registration 6319808 and was admitted in 2014.
Why so many survivors wait
Residential schooling removes the ordinary safeguard of going home at the end of the day. Supervision is continuous, and so is exposure, and a child has nobody outside to tell. Many students had no one to turn to then. Some did not have words for it until much later.
Why the past is often still on file
Private boarding schools are often long-established institutions with decades of internal records. Those records do not disappear when students graduate. These cases are built from institutional records rather than from a complete account, so remembering only part of what happened is ordinary.
What a claim asks
A civil claim asks a different question from a criminal case: what the school knew, what it should have known, and what it did. These claims are usually brought against the school, not only against the individual. The theory that most often carries them is negligent supervision, though several usually run together, and which fits depends on your facts.
Private boarding schools are not public bodies, so the Tort Immunity Act does not apply. The liability questions are the ordinary institutional ones.
Common Questions Around Older Boarding School Claims
What does it cost? Nothing up front. These cases are taken on a contingency fee, so there is no fee if there is no recovery.
What if I only remember part of it? That is ordinary. The school's records carry much of the weight.
Does calling commit me to anything? No. Nothing is set in motion by asking a question.
What happens when you reach out
A question sets nothing in motion. You speak with a person, not a form. You do not have to describe what happened. We look into which institution was responsible, 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. If you decide not to go ahead, it ends there, and what you told us stays confidential. If you go ahead, we carry the filings, deadlines, records, and the institution's insurers. Steps can be taken to protect your identity in the court record.
Call (708) 671-6858 for a free, confidential case review.
