Sport Waiver Risk Fitness Law

A patron’s fall off a stationary bike meets a court’s support of waiver protection for clubs.

By John T. Wolohan
This January, 2010, article written by John Wolohan illustrates the value of  an effective waiver when an injury occurs.

Why do courts in some jurisdictions fail to uphold waivers, while other courts will accept them in most cases? Often, the reason is a …

By Doyice Cotten
Jerid Rosencrans (Rosencrans v. Dover Images, Ltd., 2011 Cal. App. LEXIS 177) arrived at the Starwest motocross track in his truck with his motorcycle in the truck’s bed. Jerid stopped his truck at the entrance booth at the Starwest facility where the employee in the booth gave Jerid a clipboard containing the waiver and said, “Here, just sign in,” or “Here, sign this.”
The document was titled, “Release and Waiver of Liability Assumption of Risk and Indemnity Agreement”,  and consisted of nine paragraphs. Beneath the paragraphs were multiple horizontal …

By Doyice J. Cotten
In January of this year, we posted an article that dealt with waivers and negligence per se.  This article, which originally appeared in Fitness Management magazine, also relates to negligence per se.
Reoven Capri suffered injury when he slipped and fell on the pool deck while walking to the pool.  He returned to the pool the next day and found an accumulation of algae around the drain on the pool deck where he fell.  He filed suit against L.A. Fitness International alleging that the club was both negligent …

By  Doyice  and Mary Cotten
On February 7 of this year we posted an article “Updating Parental Waiver Law — Part I”
updating laws regarding parental waivers in Florida and a number of other states. The Florida statute addressed was s. 744.301 in which the legislature authorized parental waivers for injuries or loss resulting from the inherent risks of the activity (but NOT from the negligence of the provider).
In this article I want to make our readers aware of another statute that might be important to parties signing or relying on parental …

By Doyice J. Cotten
An agreement to mediate and/or arbitrate any grievance against a provider can be included in the membership agreement or the liability waiver. The following language is one example of language that can be used in the agreement. Another version of this article was published earlier by Fitness Management magazine.
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If there is any dispute over $500 between you and California Fitness, both parties agree to submit it to binding arbitration, using the American Arbitration Rules (Rules).  Arbitration means that neither you nor California Fitness can sue each …