It is critical to get a release of liability form (also called a waiver) from your customers for several reasons. One is to protect your company and your employees from liability. The form is called a release because participants who sign it are releasing your company from liability for injury and damage they may encounter during the covered activities. A well-crafted and signed release of liability form can help protect your company against a negligence claim from one of your customers. (Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care that results in injury or damage to a person to whom you owe a duty of care.) If you are ever sued or threatened with a suit by a customer who signed a liability waiver, you can use the waiver to assert a contractual defense to liability – in other words, the customer has entered into contract with you not to hold you liable for any claimed negligence. A well-drafted release of liability form may also help you demonstrate that your customer knew about and assumed the risks inherent in the activity. That offers your company another layer of protection against liability.

Yes, in fact, another reason for a release of liability form is to protect your customers. A well-drafted release educates potential participants about what risks they might face as part of the covered activities, and if applicable, what kind of skills they need to participate safely. The participants can use that information to decide whether the activities are right for them. Many will decide to go forward, knowing what is involved; a few might not

Each adult participant should sign his or her own waiver. Courts are more likely to enforce a waiver that was signed by the adult participant, rather than another on the participant’s behalf (such as a group leader).

Waiver law is based on state law, which can vary greatly. So can the way state courts interpret waivers. Courts are more likely to uphold liability waivers that are well-drafted to meet certain requirements. Courts look at things such as whether the waiver was clear, unambiguous and explicit (good); whether the injury resulted from risks identified in the waiver (good); whether the waiver was signed voluntarily (good); and whether the waiver violates public policy or state laws (bad). Other characteristics of a good release of liability form are: it is a standalone document (instead of language crammed into a larger contract); it has large and prominent print; and it was signed by the participant rather than by someone else on the participant’s behalf (such as a group leader). It is important to remember that liability waivers release only negligent acts and omissions – they do not release your company from liability for deliberate wrong-doing or gross (really bad) negligence. Note that a few states do not allow liability for negligent acts to be waived.

WaiverHub strongly recommends that you consult with an attorney familiar with your state laws, business type and the drafting of liability waivers. The attorneys listed in our getting help with your liability waiver section handle liability waivers. You can also check with your local bar association.

This is an important question to understand as you consider switching from paper to online. There are many factors that vary from business to business. The quantity of releases signed, the way in which they are presented to participants, how the releases are then collected and organized, and the method of storage all affect the actual cost of using paper liability release forms. In our research, we generally find that using an online release of liability form vs a paper version will save you money, and in many cases, online release forms are substantially less expensive.

Although people often breeze through various online terms and conditions, WaiverHub has created a process that ensures the entire liability waiver or agreement has been viewed prior to applying an electronic signature. WaiverHub also sends an email of the signed waiver to each participant email address so that they are given the opportunity to read it again.

From banking to real estate transactions, more and more industries rely on, and indeed prefer, the electronic approach to serving up documents, and receiving signatures. That said, we recommend that you confirm with your own insurance carrier that they accept electronic liability waiver forms with electronic signatures.

Yes! WaiverHub makes it incredibly easy for your participants to only fill out their information once and then sign as many documents as needed, using that same participant information. Many businesses will present more than one document such as a liability waiver, followed by a photographic consent form, followed by a rental agreement. This division of documents allows the critical liability waiver to not get diluted with the wording of the other documents that also require online signatures.

Yes. Whatever you enter in WaiverHub is your content and you are ultimately responsible for any updates or edits to that content.

WaiverHub allows you to export lists for all your contacts as well as those who have signed during a specific date range or for participants who have signed for a specific event.