For many survivors, cost is a real barrier to asking about a claim. They worry about retainers, hourly bills, or being charged just for a conversation. For boarding school abuse cases, that worry has a clear answer. There is nothing to pay up front.
These cases are taken on a contingency fee, so there is no fee if there is no recovery. Looking into who had a duty, what the school knew, and what records exist costs you nothing.
You also do not need to have reported the abuse, and nobody needs to have been charged. Attorney Ervin Nevitt, a partner at Coplan + Crane, reviews these cases. He is registered with the Illinois bar (6319808) and was admitted in 2014.
Asking commits you to nothing
Nothing is set in motion by asking a question. You speak with a person, not a form or an intake script. You do not have to describe what happened in order to have the conversation. If you decide not to go ahead, that is the end of it, and what you told us stays confidential.
What the review looks at
A civil claim asks what the school knew, what it should have known, and what it did. These boarding school abuse claims are usually brought against the school, not only against the individual. Negligent supervision is the theory that most often carries them, though several usually run together, and which fits depends on your facts.
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. Private boarding schools are not public bodies, so the Tort Immunity Act does not apply, and they are often long-established institutions with decades of internal records. The liability questions are the ordinary institutional ones.
Common Questions Around Cost and Getting Started
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.
It was a long time ago. That is the norm in this work rather than the exception. What governs it is your age at the time, who was responsible, and the particular facts.
What if I only remember part of it? That is ordinary. These cases are built from institutional records rather than from a complete account.
If you go ahead
We tell you plainly what is possible first. If you choose to go ahead, we carry it: the filings, the deadlines, the 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.
