Legal Question in Consumer Law in Illinois

My Identity (along with ~250 others) was stolen by a Janitor at my Doctor's office from an unlocked file cabinet. They then created Fake ID's from that info and used it to open store and credit cards in my name. They opened a total of 4 cards and racked up over $6k in charges in 1 day before I luckily noticed. Do I have any recourse against my Doctor's office for not securing my information? Shouldn't they have safety measures in place to keep this type of info out of the hands of the cleaning staff? I have had to spend the last month cleaning up this nightmare from my credit report and I cringe everytime the phone rings or I check the mail, assuming the worst.


Asked on 3/26/10, 11:29 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Thomas Moens Moens Law Offices, Chartered

I think there is a good argument that they did not adequately secure your sensitive financial information, so I would think contacting an attorney would be a good idea. The measure of your damages will be difficult, but not impossible. I have never understood why they think they need all of that information anyway, so I will only provide that information I believe is relevant. Employer, SSN, driver's license number, etc. just does not seem medically relevant to me. Maybe your case will change the way they collect information.

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Answered on 4/05/10, 8:40 am


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