Liability Waiver Forms Scams

What Is a Waiver Form?

Many corporations try to protect themselves by getting all of the clients that they deal with to sign a document in which they waive liability (give up or release) for potential personal injuries or damage to property. These waivers or releases have become quite popular especially with respect to recreational activities - for example at swimming pool waterslides, theme parks, ski slopes, bicycle and motorbike rental shops, just to name a select few issues where criminal liability is likely to occur.

How Effective Is a Waiver or Liability?

Some extreme/danger sports have been determined by precedents to be inherently dangerous - such as skydiving and bungee diving. In most cases, where a sport has been predetermined as dangerous, the competitors or participants are often said to have voluntarily waived their rights to recover and be compensated in the event of a personal injury. This is because the sport is generally known to cause injuries and a person being involved in the supposed dangerous sport should know the dangers and by participating has been classified as 'assuming the risk' of injury, and protecting the organisation from criminal liability. Assumption of risk generally prevents the owner of a skydiving company or a ski field (or perhaps even a cricket oval, baseball field or a golf course) from being held responsible to an injured party who is involved in an accident (or indeed hit by a stray ball). This often holds true even without a specific waiver of liability, such is the common-sense approach given to the interesting world of commercial liability. By going to a golf course, it is generally held that a person has assumed the risk of being hit by a stray ball and that these occurrences happen.

What Kind of Information can be Found on a Liability Form?

Generally a liability waiver form consists information such as 'I voluntarily assume full responsibility for any risks or loss, property damage or personal injury including death that may be sustained by me, or loss or damage to property owned by me as a result of participation in this sport/organisation/event/etc'. Liability waiver forms can also include information such as 'I hereby release, waive, discharge and covenant not to sue SAID ORGANISATION, their officers, servants, agents, and employees. It will also feature a section before the signature which states 'I have read the waiver of liability and sign it voluntarily'. The voluntarily word is very important in this waiver, as it stipulates that the individual was not forced to sign the waiver.

How Can a Liability Waiver Form Scam Occur?

Sometimes, however, organisations can force individuals/consumers to sign liability waiver forms against their wishes. Whilst the concept is that the signing of these forms is voluntarily, there are many deceitful methods that organisations may employ to protect their business. In many countries, organisations have been caught falsifying signatures At the most basic level, this is fraud and can face serious consequences in a court of law and influx serious criminal liability. Other liability waiver form scams involve changing a waiver form document after it has been signed. With advanced computer technology it is now easier than ever to edit a signed document and make significant modifications. An example would be if a supermarket forced employees to sign a contract regarding their pay and conditions of employment, but the organisation falsifies the document and adds an extra section stating that 'the employee is part responsible for any damage done to the business by any external factor, such as fire or theft'. A week later a customer falls over in the supermarket and the employee is part liable for the cost of compensation, which is obviously unfair and unrealistic. Another method that organisations may commit liability waiver scam offences are by making a liability form difficult to understand and making the contract appear vague and indistinguishable. Sometimes when a document is produced with such prodigious jargon it becomes very difficult for the average consumer to understand. Whilst this isn't necessarily the most severe of fraudulent scams, it should be noted that a document needs to be produced with the consideration that the consumer that reads the document needs to be able to understand it.

Ways to Avoid Liability Waiver Form Scams.

The best way for an individual to avoid a liability waiver form scam is to ensure that they read the paperwork and the contract very carefully. If you're going to participate in an activity that has dangerous aspects, it pays to read the fine print (often very fine print) at least twice and check for any ambiguous terms and phrases, and then clarifying these with the writer of the contract. Liability waiver forms can be a terrific way for a corporation to protect themselves, but they need to ensure that they go through the correct processes in a legal way, and do not rob the individual of any of their rights to safety and protection from injury or damage to property.

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