No-Injury Lawsuits
Biometric Information Privacy Act
Illinois lawmakers enacted the Biometric Information Privacy Act in 2008, but it lied dormant until 2015 when plaintiffs’ lawyers discovered its business potential. BIPA provides a private right of action to a person whose fingerprint, voiceprint, hand or facial scan, or similar information is collected, used, sold, disseminated, or stored in a manner that does not meet the law’s requirements.
Since 2019, when the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs’ lawyers could seek BIPA damages on behalf of individuals who had not experienced an actual injury, “more than 1,500 BIPA lawsuits have been filed in Illinois state and federal courts, transforming BIPA into a potent tool for class action attorneys.”
Enacted in August 2024, S.B. 2979 limits the number of violations occurring to a single instance, regardless of how many times a business scans or transmits a person’s biometric information. That legislation overturned a 2023 Illinois Supreme Court ruling finding otherwise, allowing statutory damages to accumulate for every scan. Even with this reform, the liability exposure businesses face under BIPA remains high because, when a class action includes thousands of people, each can seek $1,000 or $5,000 in damages.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is considering a case that will determine whether this legislation applies retroactively to pending cases filed before the enactment date. The key issue is whether a plaintiff may recover damages for a single BIPA violation — such as the general act of fingerprint collection — or for each individual instance in which he clocked in and scanned his fingerprint. The case involves a Union Pacific truck driver who alleges that his employer scanned and retained his fingerprint data without express permission, disclosure, or consent. Originally filed in Cook County, the case was removed to federal court under diversity jurisdiction. After that court ruled that the legislation did not apply retroactively, it allowed an immediate appeal to the Seventh Circuit in June 2025.
Unsurprisingly, BIPA litigation continues following the 2024 legislative reform. For example, in March 2025, plaintiffs’ lawyers filed a class action in Cook County against the popular haircare brand Living Proof, alleging that the company collected and stored users’ selfies through its “Hair Quiz” and “Haircare Advisor” tools, which were designed to recommend products based on hair type. In June 2025 in a separate case, an Illinois appellate court upheld a Cook County ruling that certified a class of 800 current and former ITS Technologies & Logistics employees, who claimed their employer used time clocks that scanned handprints in violation of BIPA.
Genetic Information Privacy Act
The Illinois’ Genetic Information Privacy Act, enacted in 1998, addresses the disclosure and use of an individual’s genetic information. It restricts employers from requiring genetic testing as a condition of employment and states that the results of genetic testing cannot be used to affect the terms of employment. It includes a private right of action that allows any “aggrieved person” to collect $2,500 for a negligent violation and $15,000 for a reckless or intentional violation, plus attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses, regardless of whether they experienced any actual loss. Given their immense success under BIPA, plaintiffs’ lawyers have started exploiting GIPA’s broad definition of “genetic information” and the availability of sub-stantial statutory damages to generate lucrative class action lawsuits targeting businesses across the state.
GIPA class action lawsuits filed in 2025 include:
- January 2025: Class action filed against Compass Group over pre-employment questions about family medical history (Cook County Circuit Court)
- March 2025: Class action filed against MV Transportation Company over pre-employment requirement to divulge family medical history (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois – covers Cook County)
- May 2025: Class action filed against Buffalo Wild Wings over pre-employment questions about private medical histories (Cook County Circuit Court)
- June 2025: Class action filed against Abbott Laboratories over on-boarding materials containing questions about family medical history (Northern District Court)
- August 2025: Class action lawsuit filed against City of Evanston over pre-employment questions about family medical history (Cook County Circuit Court)
- October 2025: Class action filed against CSL Plasma over pre-employment questions about family medical history (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois – covers Madison and St. Clair Counties)
Food & Beverage Litigation
Illinois ranked in the Top 3 states for the most class action lawsuits against food and beverage makers in 2024, moving up from previous years. The state also ranks third for hosting the most consumer class actions against cosmetic companies. Only fellow Judicial Hellholes® New York and California are home to more of these types of lawsuits.
Some of the suits also come from other problematic counties. For example, one particularly ridiculous lawsuit alleged that a breakfast cereal manufacturer misrepresented the number of servings in its Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles cereals, claiming the box had fewer than 15 servings, as labeled. That lawsuit, which was transferred to the Southern District of Illinois from St. Clair County, was brought on behalf of all individuals who purchased the two cereals during a five-year period (Illinois has a particularly long statute of limitations for such claims). After the court denied a motion to dismiss in March 2025, finding that the complaint raised factual issues about whether a reasonable consumer would be misled, the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed, likely indicating a settlement.
This year, St. Clair and Madison Counties rejoin Cook County on the Judicial Hellholes® list. This trio of Illinois counties’ plain-tiff-friendly reputation has made them a magnet for asbestos claims, no-injury cases, and like their neighboring city, fellow Judicial Hellhole® St. Louis, novel baseless litigation against manufacturers of life-preserving baby formula for premature infants.
These three counties are home to a disproportionate amount of the state’s nuclear verdicts®, and Cook County most often is the chosen court. Cook County alone saw 161,064 new civil case filings in 2023, while the rest of Illinois — spread across 23 circuit trial courts— recorded 324,247. Cook County’s filings accounted for 47% of the state’s total civil docket.
The Illinois Legislature was named a “
Cook, Madison, and St. Clair Counties remain hotspots for asbestos claims, attracting plaintiffs from across the country due to their favorable litigation environments. Plaintiffs’ firms continue to choose this trio of counties as their preferred destinations while defendants bear the burden of fighting what are often unsubstantiated claims. Through July 2025, these three Illinois counties each ranked in the 
Illinois courts have a reputation for producing nuclear verdicts®. Over a ten-year period, in personal injury trials, Illinois courts returned the 
In February 2024, the City of Chicago sued oil and gas companies, claiming that the industry falsely advertised its products as safe and promoted their use while knowing of potentially negative environmental effects. In so doing, the city joined several other state and local governments that are attempting to regulate the energy industry through litigation. Piecemeal litigation in state courts is an inappropriate and ineffective way to tackle climate change, a matter of national and global significance deserving of a coordinated international response. In a disappointing May 2025 decision, the federal court in Northern Illinois 
