Attacked in
Your Dorm
Injury Law Made Personal®
A residence hall sells one thing above everything else: that the building is locked to everyone but the people who live there. Then the front desk sits empty at night, the door behind you does not latch, and somebody who does not live there is standing at the glass. Illinois asks the school and the people who run that building a fair question: was this foreseeable, and was the security reasonable? Ankin Law has fought for injured Chicagoans for over 35 years.
Call 312.600.0000 Free Case ReviewWhy an Attack in a Dorm Is Not Your Fault
The Desk Nobody Is Sitting At
The residence hall has a front desk for a reason: to see who comes through the door. At night the chair is empty, the sign-in sheet is on the clipboard, and the only thing between the street and the elevators is a door everybody assumes is locked.
Two Students Heading Up
They have walked this lobby a hundred times. Back from the library, bags on their shoulders, waiting on an elevator in the building their parents were told was secure. Nothing about tonight feels different, and that is exactly the point.
Somebody at the Glass
He does not live there and he has no card. He is waiting for the door, for a student coming in behind, for a desk that stays empty long enough. What the school knew about the doors, the desk and the people who had done this before is the whole case.
Is a Free Consultation Really Free?
Howard Ankin answers your questions directly.
What Illinois Law Says About Dorm Security
Under the Premises Liability Act an owner or occupier owes every lawful entrant reasonable care under the circumstances. A college that houses students, locks the building and staffs a desk has taken on the job of doing that with reasonable care
No school is an insurer of your safety. What creates the duty is notice: earlier incidents in that hall or on that campus, a door reported broken and never repaired, a desk left empty. Colleges must publish their own campus crime figures every year under federal law
is the usual Illinois deadline for an injury lawsuit. If the school is a public university, claims against it go through a different process with its own shorter notice rules, so the clock matters from the first day
Who Pays — and What You Can Recover
The School and the Housing Office
The college that owns the residence hall and the office that runs it answer for the doors, the locks, the lighting and the desk. Their staffing schedules, their work orders and their incident reports are the first things Ankin Law asks for.
Anyone Who Took On the Security
Illinois holds you to what you actually undertook. A private company that manages the building, a contractor hired to fix the entry door, a security firm on the payroll — once they take the job on, it has to be done with reasonable care.
What You Can Recover
Medical and psychological treatment, lost semesters and lost earnings, and what an attack where you sleep actually costs you — pain and suffering and loss of a normal life. Illinois reduces a recovery for your own share of fault, which is exactly why that share gets fought.
Why Ankin Law Is the Right Call After a Dorm Attack
The Proof Erases Itself
Hallway cameras overwrite on a loop. Card-swipe logs show exactly whose card opened that door and when. Desk schedules and emails about the broken lock are what turn a bad night into a case with notice.
Expect the School to Protect Itself
A college has lawyers, a communications office and a reputation to defend. You will be asked why you let someone in, why you were out late, whether you knew him. Those questions are a strategy, not an investigation.
No Fee Unless You Win
You pay nothing to start and nothing unless Ankin Law recovers for you. The consultation is free and confidential, and there is no obligation to hire anyone. Howard Ankin has been doing this for over 40 years.
Get Your Free Case Review
Improper security in a residence hall? If you or your child was harmed because the doors, the desk or the security in student housing failed, the swipe logs and the camera footage are already counting down. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation with no obligation.
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