United States: Exclusive Remedy Rule Does Not Bar Suit Under Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act

The putative class action filed by an employee against his employer alleging its use of a fingerprint timekeeping system violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) was not barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, held a federal district court. Stressing that the plaintiff had not alleged any sort of physical or mental injury that resulted from the employer’s actions, the federal court predicted that the Supreme Court of Illinois would likely find plaintiff’s alleged injuries were not the sort that fit within the purview of the state Act. Accordingly, the tort action against the employer was not barred, at least as a matter of law.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Treadwell v. Power Solutions Int’l, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 215467 (N.D. Ill., Dec. 16, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 100.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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