Northshore University Healthsystem is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating an Illinois privacy law by asking job applicants about their family medical history.
The plaintiff, Monica Ogen, filed the suit on behalf of herself and others alleged similarly situated, accusing the suburban health and hospital system of violating the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA).
According to the complaint, the GIPA law was enacted to protect residents from having their genetic information used against them in employment settings. It bars employers from learning or using genetic information in making employment decisions and prohibits them from asking about employees' or potential employees' genetic information.
The lawsuit asserts asking questions about family medical history amounts to an attempt by an employer to learn someone's genetic information.
According to the complaint, Northshore University Healthsystem allegedly asked its employees to provide protected family medical history when making hiring determinations and job assignments. The plaintiff seeks an order requiring the defendant to cease these unlawful activities and awarding actual and statutory damages, plus attorney fees.
The lawsuit is seeking a potentially big payout from Northshore of 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 Northshore in the past five years.
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.
Legal observers believe trial lawyers, including those who have reaped big paydays from the BIPA-related lawsuits, are now trying to similarly land big money from the similar GIPA lawsuits.
The lawsuit against Northshore was filed Jan. 9 in Cook County Circuit Court by attorneys Mark R. Miller, Nicholas P. Kelly and Juan M. Garibay, of the firm of Wallace Miller, of Chicago; and David J. DiSabato and Kyle D. McLean, of Siri & Glimstad, of New York.