Illinois does not let just anyone open a treatment room. Massage therapy is a licensed profession here, and the rules behind that license do more than set training standards. They create a state record on every therapist, separate from anything a spa keeps, and they spell out what happens when a therapist is accused of sexual misconduct. For survivors, those rules can be the starting point for real accountability.
You do not need to have reported what happened to use them. No police report, charge or conviction is required for a civil claim. A civil case asks a different question from a criminal one: what the business or franchise knew, what it should have known and what it did.
The Massage Therapy Practice Act
The governing law is the Massage Therapy Practice Act, 225 ILCS 57. Before Public Act 102-20 took effect on January 1, 2022, it was titled the Massage Licensing Act, and some state pages still use that name. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) administers the Act. A seven-member Massage Licensing Board advises the Department.
Who Must Be Licensed
Under the Act, anyone who performs massage for compensation must hold a license from the Department. Some professionals are exempt when they perform massage within their own training, including nurses, cosmetologists and estheticians. Certain bodywork is exempt as well, such as reflexology confined to the feet, hands and ears without disrobing.
What It Takes to Get and Keep a License
An applicant must be at least 18 years old 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, a therapist must complete 25 hours of continuing education. One of those hours must cover domestic violence and sexual assault awareness.
Rules That Keep the License Visible
Section 32 requires every licensee to display the license, with the number visible, at each place they practice. If a client asks, the therapist must show the license along with a photo badge from the employer or a government photo ID. 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.
Discipline for Sexual Misconduct
Section 45 lists the grounds on which IDFPR can refuse, suspend, revoke or otherwise discipline a license. One of them is immoral conduct in any act related to the licensee's practice, such as sexual abuse, sexual misconduct or sexual exploitation. The Department can also fine a therapist up to $10,000 for each violation.
Section 45 reaches beyond licensed therapists, too. A spa that put an unlicensed person in a treatment room has a separate problem, and the section lets IDFPR treat an unlicensed business owner who employs unlicensed practitioners as a licensee for discipline.
Permanent Revocation After Certain Convictions
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. The conviction is a permanent bar to practicing massage therapy in Illinois.
Chaperone Orders After Criminal Charges
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 the therapist is not convicted, the order is vacated and removed from the record.
Before any discipline under Section 45, the therapist receives written notice of the charges and a hearing.
Why These Rules Matter in a Civil Case
Because the state licenses massage therapists, a regulator holds a complaint and discipline file separate from the spa's own records. That file is often the fastest route to showing that a therapist had been complained about before.
Still, a license case and a civil claim are separate. IDFPR decides whether someone may keep practicing. It does not award compensation, and you do not need an IDFPR finding before bringing a civil claim. The discipline record can still matter, because it may show what the spa was told and when.
How to Find the Record
You can check a therapist without anyone knowing. IDFPR's Check License page links to the Professional Regulation License Look Up, searchable 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. Requests for the full disciplinary file on an individual go through IDFPR's Freedom of Information Act process, addressed to the Department's FOIA officer. If you cannot find a license, that is worth knowing, though the exemptions above mean it is not always the end of the question.
Who Is Held Responsible
A massage assault claim is usually brought against the business or franchise, rather than only the individual therapist. Negligent hiring is the theory that most often carries the case, though several usually run together. Which one fits depends on your facts.
The business is usually private, so the Tort Immunity rules governing claims against Illinois public bodies do not apply in the same way. The questions are the ordinary institutional liability questions under Illinois law.
Many spa chains are franchises. The local company that owns the location, the franchisee, typically hires and schedules the 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 named is a separate legal question. Generally, it depends on how much control the franchisor had, or kept the right to have, over who could be hired, what background checks were required, how client complaints were reported and handled and what happened to a therapist after a complaint. Another question is whether the brand presented itself in a way that led a client to reasonably believe they were dealing with the company itself. Both may be in frame, especially where the franchisor set the hiring and safety standards the operator was supposed to follow. Illinois courts decide this on the facts and documents, so it is not something to assume either way 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.
When Doubt Sets In
Assault during a massage happens in a setting where undressing and touch are expected. That is exactly what makes people doubt themselves afterward. Most of these assaults have no witness, and they tend to surface 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. Thanks to the chaperone rule, some clients first learn of a pending case through the written notice.
If something happened, write down the date, the location, the therapist's name as shown on your booking and what you remember. Keep your booking confirmation, receipt and any messages with the spa. The spa also holds appointment logs, intake forms, therapist schedules and earlier complaints. Reporting to the police or IDFPR is your decision.
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, not the individual.
It was a long time ago. That is the norm in this work. Your age at the time, who was responsible and the 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 through the Check License page. Licensed therapists must also display their license and show it on request.
Can I file with IDFPR and also bring a civil claim? Yes. IDFPR's process concerns the license. A civil claim concerns compensation, usually from 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 be named depends on its control over hiring, screening and complaint handling, as the franchise documents show.
What Happens If You Call
Nothing is set in motion by asking a question. You speak with a person, and you do not need 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 choose not to go ahead, that is the end of it, and what you said stays confidential. If you go ahead, we carry the filings, deadlines, records and the insurers, and steps can be taken to protect your identity in the court record.
Talk to Ervin Nevitt
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.
If you need to talk to someone now, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is free and confidential at 1-800-656-4673, any time. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Calling a hotline does not affect your legal options. Read more: https://survivorsofabuseil.com/massage-spa-sexual-abuse-lawyer-il/
Attorney advertising. This post is general information, not legal advice.
