One of Illinois' largest health care systems has become one of the most recent targets of a growing number of class action lawsuits accusing them of allegedly violating Illinois' genetic information privacy law.
The lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court by attorney Mark Hammervold, of Hammervold Law LLC, of Elmhurst, on behalf of named plaintiff Shaquala Wade, of Cook County
According to the complaint, Wade applied for a job in 2022 at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. At that time, as part of the application process, Advocate allegedly asked Wade to answer questions about her family medical history.
The suit claims that the company has asked many other job applicants at its hospitals about their family medical history to assist with the employment screening process, which the lawsuit claims amounts to improper demands for private information allegedly protected under GIPA.
The lawsuit asks the court to order Advocate to pay up to $15,000 per alleged violation, as allowed under GIPA, plus attorney fees.
The plaintiffs' seek to expand the action to include anyone who applied for a job at Advocate in Illinois in the past five years.
According to its company website, Advocate employes more than 35,000 people in the Chicago area.
In recent months, a growing group of plaintiffs' lawyers have filed similar GIPA-related class actions against dozens of other large Illinois employers, seeking potentially massive paydays. The lawsuits have followed a similar pattern to those set by litigation under Illinois' controversial Biometric Information Privacy Act, which has resulted in a litany of multi-million dollar settlements, and hundreds of millions of dollars in collective attorney fees paid to class action lawyers who file the suits.