Many adults in Aurora carry childhood abuse in silence for years before they can talk about it. If you are only now ready, you are not alone, and you have not missed your moment. Whether the abuse happened recently or decades ago, it is very often still possible to explore a civil claim against the institution that failed to protect you.
You do not need to have reported it, and nobody needs to have been convicted. Attorney Ervin Nevitt, a partner at Coplan + Crane, reviews these cases. He is registered with the Illinois bar (6319808) and was admitted in 2014.
What actually governs a claim
Three things carry the most weight: your age at the time, who was responsible, and the particular facts. Whether anyone believed you back then is not what decides it. People regularly assume they are out of time and turn out not to be.
Where childhood abuse often happened in Aurora
Churches come up often. Aurora sits across two dioceses. The Kane County side falls under the Diocese of Rockford, where the Illinois Attorney General's 2023 report named 24 clerics with substantiated child sexual abuse claims. The DuPage, Will, and Kendall County sides fall under the Diocese of Joliet, where the report named 69.
Schools come up too. Six districts serve the city. East Aurora District 131 has about 12,000 students across 22 sites and ranks as the 13th largest district in Illinois. West Aurora District 129, Indian Prairie District 204, and three others serve the rest. The district a school sits in decides who the defendant is.
If a school district, a county, or the state was responsible, the Illinois Tort Immunity Act and notice requirements that do not apply to private organizations come into play. It is the first thing to check, and it is easy to get wrong.
Where a case would be heard
Aurora spans Kane, DuPage, Will, and Kendall counties. Most civil claims are filed in the circuit court of the county where the abuse happened. Claims against the State go to the Illinois Court of Claims.
Common Questions Around Childhood Abuse Claims
The person who abused me is dead. Is there anything left to pursue? Yes. A claim can still proceed, because these cases are usually brought against the institution that placed that person in a position of trust.
Do I have to decide anything now? No. You can ask what is possible and stop there.
Will people find out? If you go forward, steps can be taken to protect your identity in the court record.
Help that does not require a lawyer
Support is there no matter what you decide. Mutual Ground in Aurora runs a 24-hour sexual violence hotline at 630-897-8383. RAINN offers free, confidential help at 1-800-656-4673, 24 hours a day.
Where to begin
A question sets nothing in motion. You speak with a person, not an intake script, and you do not have to describe what happened. We look into which institution had a duty, what it knew, and what records exist, at no cost to you. We then tell you plainly what is possible.
If you decide not to continue, that is the end of it, and what you shared stays confidential. If you continue, we carry the filings, deadlines, records, and the institution's insurers.
Call (708) 671-6858 for a free, confidential case review. Learn more: https://survivorsofabuseil.com/sexual-abuse-lawyer-aurora-il/
