We talk to more than 250 people every week about various Illinois legal matters. While we can’t help everyone, most people have sincere, good reasons for calling. They need a work comp attorney or divorce lawyer or legal help with a traffic ticket.

Some people want to know if they have a lawsuit. They might present a situation that isn’t a case, but that doesn’t mean that they have frivolous or ridiculous intentions. They just don’t know what they don’t know and are seeing if they have any legal rights.

We do get some calls that even if the caller sincerely doesn’t know if they have a case or not, most people would recognize right away that the claim is frivolous. Over a year that can add up. Here are some of those situations we’ve heard about in 2024 along with why they are frivolous.

• A caller wanted to sue over the harm that certain pesticides could cause. He hasn’t been to a doctor, doesn’t know who he wants to sue and has no symptoms. He’s just mad these pesticides exist. (This is frivolous because there is no actual harm suffered. It theoretically could be a case if he went to a doctor and they related a serious illness to a chemical exposure).
• We received a call from a former star high school athlete who was kicked off the team 40 years ago after he felt they made him confess to breaking school rules that he didn’t break. As a result he lost out on college scholarship opportunities and spiraled. (It’s far too late to bring this case and you can’t sue a school because they disciplined you about something you confessed).
• A couple wants to sue a school across the street from their house because their new bell system is really loud. (They have no case because it happens during the day and that’s the risk of living by a school).
• A guy rented an apartment that didn’t have great heat. He bought a space heater that ended up burning him when he fell asleep.
• A guy wanted to go for custody in order to deter his girlfriend from going for child support and use that as leverage. We declined to get involved as it’s unethical and as he didn’t even want custody it would be frivolous.
• A woman wanted to sue because she felt “baited” into calling some black women the N-word and is facing repercussions for it.
• Caller wanted to sue Facebook because she feels the ads that are shown on her feed are disgusting and that she shouldn’t be forced to look at them.
• We were contacted by someone who was at work 20 years ago and never filed a workers comp case. She stopped treating for a back injury after five years, her company went bankrupt and now 15 years later she has an infection in her spine that she thinks is due to the work injury. It’s about 13 years too late to bring a case.
• A woman wanted to get child support from her boyfriend who just broke up with her. He is not the biological father and did not sign the birth certificate, but has helped her raise the child for the last three years. He legally owes her or the child nothing.
• A caller wanted to sue their boyfriend of 10 years because they discovered they’d been cheating the last two. Cheating is immoral, but not illegal.
• Person contacted our office after they were fired for having an anger problem. They felt the employer should be required by law to try to help them and work with them.
• Many people who want to bring a frivolous suit are naive. Some unfortunately have mental illness. One woman wanted us to sue the police because they’ve arrested her every day for 45 years.
• A guy with lung cancer who’s used medical marijuana for almost a decade and smoked before that, wants to sue his medical marijuana doctor for not warning him that cancer was a possible side effect.
• Gentleman who “Lost my job to China” back in 2015 wanted to sue his old employer to try and get a severance.
• A woman wanted to sue a store because they sold an item she was interested in to someone else and had asked them to reserve it for her. She didn’t put any money down and no promises were made.
• A caller wanted to sue the Illinois Lottery because they didn’t like the odds on the scratchers tickets.
• Guy bought a house “as is”, didn’t have an inspection and now wants to sue because it’s a money pit that he can’t live in.
• Caller was squatting in a home. Got locked out so he broke in through a window and fell, injuring his leg. Wanted to sue for his injury.
• Woman was kicked out of a movie theater when security thought she was being disruptive when it was really a woman a row behind her. Wanted to sue for a million dollars.
• Person made a very racist video as a teenager in which they used the N word many time. They are now an adult with a job and someone sent the video to their employer who terminated them. Wanted to sue whoever sent it (they don’t know who) for defamation because it embarrassed them.
• Caller wanted to sue Microsoft because he wasn’t able to get the internet to work on his computer.
• A worker was suspended for being high on the job and wanted to sue because marijuana is legal in Illinois.
• A caller wanted to sue the police because there was an error in the police report that was fixed within a day of the error happening. They wanted to sue because they believe, without evidence, that it’s all a conspiracy against them. So they have no harm and no evidence.
• In what may be the craziest of all of these, a job applicant wants to sue the company he applied to work at because they closed their business and didn’t tell him or compensate him for the time he took in looking into that job.
• Man wants to the Judge in his child custody case because he feels they are biased against him. That isn’t allowed. You can appeal their rulings and if they commit misconduct you can report them to the Judicial Inquiry Board. But you can’t sue because you don’t like their rulings.
• In probably the saddest one, a lonely man met a woman online and was swindled out of $20,000 that he voluntarily sent to her. He eventually figured out it was a scam and wants to sue his bank because he can’t get the money back.
• A young man doesn’t have a car and wants to work close to home. He applied to one place and has gone in ten times asking them for an update and they haven’t hired him. Wants to sue because he feels he’s qualified and they should have to hire him since he lives so close.

A key point to take from all of this is that no lawyers are taking these cases. People may want to bring legal action that we’d all consider “frivolous,” but if it never actually happens it’s not really a problem. It’s more a matter of educating people on their rights. That doesn’t mean frivolous lawsuits never happen. But when they do, it’s usually someone representing themselves or an attorney filing a case and later discovering the case isn’t what they thought it was.

People and lawyers (we are people too, right?) are generally good. When you are frustrated by something in life, there’s nothing wrong with asking an attorney’s opinion as to whether or not you have a lawsuit. Lay people shouldn’t be expected to know if they have a case or not. So we don’t ever begrudge someone who reaches out to us. And hopefully we are helping them by explaining why we can’t help them.