Lavery v. Department of Financial and Professional Regulation

Plaintiffs, a provider of counseling and clinical services including substance abuse rehabilitation programs, filed an action seeking a protective order after the defendant demanded release of plaintiffs’ records relating to treatment of a physician who was seeking to have his medical license restored. Plaintiffs argued that the records were protected from disclosure under the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act. The trial court granted the plaintiffs’ request for a protective order and awarded attorney fees and costs to the plaintiff. The defendant appealed, challenging only the award of attorney fees and costs, arguing that it violated the principles of sovereign immunity. The Illinois Supreme Court agreed, noting that only the legislature has the authority to determine when the State is subject to a monetary judgment and that the State had not waived sovereign immunity with explicit language in the Confidentiality Act. (THEIS, NEVILLE, HOLDER WHITE, CUNNINGHAM, ROCHFORD, and O’BRIEN, concurring)