IronClm migth be a better person to answer this, but if recollection of contract law class 101, a contract's components are: offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity (age, authority to sign) and not signed under duress. Typically, a waiver forms part of the terms of the contract. A waiver can be overridden by a court of law where it deems the terms to be unreasonably onerous. The example, in English law text books, is the old victorian railway ticket and the terms typically found on the reverse.

Again Cathy Morgan might be the better person to answer this but a court might over turn your waiver if your have been negligent (for instance if you say in your promotional stuff that you have lots of medical staff on hand) and someone is injured and does not receive the level of medical treatment normally associated with the type of injury sustained, there possibly be a case of negligence on your part.

Or another example, you say there is going to be lots of aid stations along the run route stocked with water, gatorade etc. Its particularly hot day, your aid stations run out of water, a runner suffers from dehydration, it is possible that you have been negligent in not ensuring water supply. Note that the runner in this case, took up your offer to race based on fact that you said there will be lots of water at the aid stations (or implied that) The waiver in this case might be voided b/c the terms of the contract which the runner signed stated that there will be aid stations on the course (by implication there will be water)

Actually, this brings up another point, the contract terms might well include all the promotional material (including web site info). So it will pay to be very careful how you sell your race. So the bit of paper they sign is not specifically the entire set of terms and conditions a runner is contracting to.

I am not a lawyer, just studied law in the UK many moons ago.

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Simple Simon
Where's the Fried Chicken??

I hear you. I've been a risk manager for 20 years. I see it every day, and regularly go into my own rant about "back when people took responsibility for their own actions". But we've gone too far to turn around now. It is an animal that feeds on itself and is fueled by greed and our legal system. Outside of some really brutal reform and lawyers that are fed by the need to protect their clients and not by greed there is little one can do. (notice how I've kept the metaphore going).

All activity breeds risk. However, there are many ways to mitigate that risk to both lessen the cost of insurance and the potentiality of lawsuits. You appear to know the race directing thing so I would not deign to tell you all the risk involved. What I would suggest though is to put every possible scenario you can think of down on paper, and in the column next to the scenario write down what you think you need to do to make it as unlikely as possible. What you cannot control you then transfer, by insurance, to a third party.

I hope this was clear. If you'd like to chat about this outside the forum feel free to email me at langen@wk-us.com and we can set up a time to talk. I know it's frustrating, but it's a fact and it sometimes helps to have someone who is used to looking at things through brown glasses to help you get through it.

"When is a contract not a contract? Contracts are binding right? "

The kicker is, how do you enforce the contract? Why in court with a lawsuit. Like I mentioned before, I wouldn't be so worried about losing the case as there is a huge amount of assumption of risk involved when we race. I would worry about the costs of defending yourself. When someone gets hurt and sues, any lawyer worth his pay will make sure to name anyone that could be be hled liable, anything less would be malpractice. You could end up screwing your client (and in the end yourself when you get sued) if you missed the party actually found to be liable. Of course, in the process there are a lot of defendants that get screwed having to defend themselves when they aren't liable.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Check out the two articles that are on www.insidetri.com and www.velonews.com. They address the question of how userfull/less waivers are, and what a 'perfect' waiver might look like.

http://www.insidetri.com/news/fea/1408.0.html

http://www.insidetri.com/news/fea/1420.0.html

Two things I remember from school

"waivers are generally as worthless as the paper they are printed on"

"sue everybody for everything"

I'm not a lawyer, just work for them. I'd defer to the articles mentioned in the other post.

And, like someone said earlier, for permits, you may have to show evidence of insurance and ALSO may have to certify that waivers will be signed by all participants. At Escape from Alcatraz, at least in prior years, you've had to sign two waivers--the one when you entered the race, but then a separate one for the boat or Golden Gate National Rec Area (can't remember right now).

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Sorry thought you were. Coincidentally, just read your post on Gordo's forum. Something about risk managing a law firm, the thought of all those meetings has me breaking out in a cold sweat!!!. My wife is a securities lawyer, cant imagine trying to keep them all in line.



Simple Simon "only in jest"

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Simple Simon
Where's the Fried Chicken??

Ah, keeping them in line isn't too hard. It's when they all want something RIGHT NOW, and of course, their client is the best/most important, yada yada. ;-)

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com