urgent What sort of lawyer/lawsuit should I be looking for if the university entered into my apartment and discarded all my property during my stay at a hospital (which they knew)? Afterward, they ban me from the university and refuse to answer any questions regarding the incident. Where should I start in my quest for litigation? Thanks!

The events surrounding the incident are quite complex. I was a graduate student at a major research university in Chicago & lived in university housing. I had a nervous breakdown & had to stay at a hospital. During this time, the university entered into my place & discarded nearly all my property, many irreplaceable/unrecoverable (i.e. research, computer). I was then banned from the university without an explanation & threatened with further disciplinary action should I seek litigation (discrimination? Intimidation?). The events have been very emotionally/psychologically traumatic (personal injury?). How should I proceed? What kind of lawyer/lawsuit should I be seeking? What area(s) of law does my situation fit? What are my chances of winning/settling a lawsuit?

With less than a month before possible statute of limitations taking into effect, I am urgently writing in hopes that someone may be able to help me with figuring out how I should pursue legal action against a major university in Chicago (where I was a graduate student) regarding a complex set of heinous discriminatory and biased actions made by the university which led to several personal injuries including the loss of my income, the loss of my place of living, the loss of countless unrecoverable, irreplaceable, and invaluable property and prized possessions, and the considerable loss my research as well as academic status and reputation, amongst other losses large and small, tangible and intangible. I strongly believe my civil rights and the reasonable accommodation protections for my disabilities were grossly violated by the university through their actions. The foremost reason I am writing is regarding the significant psychological and emotional injuries that have severely affected me; injuries caused by the university’s negligence and mishandling of a situation which occurred near the end of the spring quarter in 2013 (June 2013). Since the incident, I have considered pursuing possible litigation against the university, but not sure how I should proceed and have been held back in fear as the university is a huge and wealthy institution and I am not. Furthermore, the university’s intimidation of further disciplinary action should I pursue legal action has made me feel uncomfortable about proceeding with litigation. However, the persisting and worsening mental anguish and suffering, and unceasing emotional pain and distress, caused by the university’s actions continue to traumatize and torment my day to day life. After consulting the advice of friends and colleagues, and conducting some research online, I feel a civil rights/discrimination/injury litigation may fit my case suitably. However, I would like to hear about all the possible legal options I should pursue from someone with legal knowledge, preferably an experienced attorney. I would also like to know about the possibility of lowered or contingent fees, or if my case can be carried pro bono, as I am now on SSI Disability and have limited funds. Furthermore, as I understand, I may be limited in time to pursue litigation, thus please let me know as soon as you can about what legal avenues or attorneys I should pursue. That being said, I feel confident that someone here may have very appropriate and useful advice fitting to my circumstances, and if feasible, closer to forming a formidable lawsuit.

Brief Back Story:

I was a graduate student at a major research university in Chicago (the one Obama went to), pursuing my Master’s in Sociology, from 2012 to 2013. I struggled (and still struggle) with several documented mental illnesses, the main ones being Major Depression, General Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Agoraphobia, PTSD, OCPD, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. While I tried to manage my mental illnesses along with the stresses of the highly rigorous graduate program, to my misfortune, the mental conditions grew worse through the school year, culminating with me barricading myself in the university housing graduate student apartment I was residing at the end of the spring quarter of 2013 (March-June). I barricaded myself in my apartment by securing the front door with industrial foam epoxy. I did this to focus on my course finals and research, and to prevent myself from activities which might distract me. On the morning of June 14th 2013, I hear a large crash. My front door had been battered down by the police (Chicago and UCPD campus police). I was caught in shock. Police surrounded me and the Dean of Students escorted me to the student counseling center. There I met with an emergency counselor who forwarded me to Chicago Lakeshore Hospital. I stayed at the hospital until June 29th. Somehow the hospital had gotten hold of my parents during my stay, without my consent or knowledge. My parents flew in from Sacramento, California. The hospital would only discharge me to my parents and mandated that I must return straight to Sacramento with my parents (a command from the university as Lakeshore hospital is affiliated with the university). This was not explained to me: why I could only be released to my parents, and why I had to go straight non-stop to California. It turns out a great deal was not explained to me, to my parents (who do not speak English fluently), to my brother who came with my parents, and to a close friend who was living with me at the time. During and after everything that happened, the university and the hospital would deny my requests for information and explanations. The only piece of information that I was able to attain was my hospital records.

During my time at the hospital, the university went into my apartment and discarded nearly everything inside, save a few boxes which contained some possessions which I remember was on my desk such as one of my laptops (which was smashed and in bad shape). Several thousand dollars in cash I had in my desk were never reported for. More atrociously, nearly everything related to my thesis research was gone (hundreds of hours of work), including written materials such as notebooks and journals, as well as digital materials such as other computers and hard disks. Other items included irreplaceable, invaluable and unrecoverable possessions such as hand written mail, photographs, albums, art, jewelry, gifts, rare books and collectibles, amongst countless other possessions.

The university never asked for my consent nor did they inform me about their entering into my apartment and discarding of my property while I was in the hospital. However, the university was completely aware I was in the hospital during this time. The university did not mention about what they did to my apartment and property until my parents arrived at the hospital and started asking questions – nearly two weeks later. By then, it was too late. Everything was gone. When my parents, brother, and close friend (who lived with me for parts of the year) went to my apartment to look through and rescue my property in the trash receptacle (the large rectangular kind that one would find typically at construction sites) placed in front of my apartment, they were immediately met with university officials who would not permit them to look through the trash receptacle filled with my belongings, which was then strangely towed away within minutes after my family and friend encountered the university officials. So, did university housing not want my family to know what valuables and invaluables had been haphazardly thrown out? Why did the university react with such immediacy to discard all evidence regarding their hasty clear out of my apartment? Would the university have done this to someone who did not have a mental disability? To this day I do now know the answers to these questions. The university refuses to answer any inquiries regarding the incident. My family and friends who have asked the university for answers were met with silence. My professors and thesis advisors who have inquired university administrative officials received silence. The university simply would not speak about the incident when asked. Shortly after the incident, Sam Cholke, a journalist writing for the Hyde Park Herald and DNAinfo Chicago, contacted me for some correspondence as he was trying to write an article about my incident at the university, which was beginning to cause rumors and theories amongst the community. Even Cholke, who was trying to objectively investigate the incident, was met with silence when talking with university officials regarding the incident. In addition to the silence regarding the incident and myself, the university has banned me from entering any university property, threatening me with arrest if I do. That is likely not going to happen, as I reside in California now, and I am trying to avoid anything having to do with university and my time there. However, thoughts about the university and the incident persistently intrude my mind and my life through painful emotions and memories, and violent flashbacks and nightmares. Not even in my sleep can I find rest from what happened at the university. But then again, how does one forget about the entity that took everything away from them and then refuses to answer inquiries about their egregious actions? I lost my pay (paid internship at a museum on campus), student body status, my most prized irreplaceable possessions (photographs and letters, gifts, rare collectibles, hard disks with several years worth of photos, memories, and other personal data), and substantial parts of my research. Figuratively speaking, I nearly lost my mind (psychotic episodes triggered from the distressing thoughts and emotions regarding the traumatic incident), and several times, nearly lost my own life (attempted suicide).

I guess you can leave a place, but the place won’t leave you. The heinous and discriminatory actions performed by the university have had severe and lasting psychological and emotional effects on me. It has now been nearly two years since the incident, and my mental state has not recovered much since then. If anything, I believe it has worsened. Through the many sessions of talking with my current therapist, I have come to a conclusion that, beyond a reasonable doubt, the ‘Chicago incident’ has significantly affected and altered my preexisting mental conditions for the worse. To live through trauma once is painful, but to live through it again and again is a living hell. Not a single day passes without the thoughts about what the university did to me coming up, often several times a day. Now, as the anniversary of the incident steadfastly approaches, the troubling thoughts and flashbacks of what happened in Chicago attack me several times an hour, cruelly consuming nearly all of my waking life, and they do not stop there. As I mentioned before, thoughts and flashbacks that consistently trespass my consciousness while I am awake is troubling, but that the thoughts would ceaselessly invade me in my sleep, in the form of terrorizing nightmares, is beyond disturbing.

Ever since the incident, the thought of pursuing litigation against the university has been on my mind. However, I have been unsure of how to proceed. Furthermore, the intimidation and threats made by the university that they would make my life even more difficult (i.e. disciplinary actions) if I seek litigation made me even more wary about pursuing my legal options. However, at this time, with all the extensive injuries I have succumbed from the university’s actions, I am putting their intimidation and coercions to the side, and am looking for a capable lawyer who can fight for my rights and restitution. Furthermore, I hope to see retribution take place for the university. Above all, I am seeking justice.

The entire story and sequence of events that occurred would be far too long and nuanced for a brief back story. With what I have written, I hope to have explained a complicated and complex incident with as much clarity and concision as I can without losing the multifaceted contents of what had happened. I have extensive personal records of the events (i.e. journal entries, e-mails, texts, social media posts) as well as official medical records and records from witnesses, and the version of the story that the university has released to my parents. All of the records I have gathered are available if you need them to better understand and legitimize my claim that the heinous and discriminatory actions (intentional or out of negligence) of the university have resulted in several agonizing and lasting injuries for me. I have attempted to explain the injuries the university caused me as objectively as I can, and I apologize for the emotional overtones that can be felt throughout this message, but after all, if I felt no emotions towards the egregious errors the university has committed, I wouldn’t have been so compelled to write this letter or look for help at all. Though I am anxious and still have some apprehensions about how to go forward, I strongly believe that someone might be able to provide trustworthy and invaluable advice as I try to construct and execute a litigation that will have high chances of winning/settling. Any piece of advice would be extremely helpful for me as I try to pursue legal action against the university.

With thanks, John