By Doyice Cotten
Trail rides have been a risky proposition for women in 2013. As can be seen below, a well-written liability waiver for trail rides will provide protection for equine providers from liability for ordinary negligence in most states.
Utah
In Penunuri v. Sundance Partners, LTD (2013), the rider signed a pre-injury waiver prior to a guided trail ride. Lisa Penunuri was injured by falling from her horse when the horse unexpectedly accelerated to close the gap to the next rider.
By Charles R. Gregg and Catherine Hansen-Stamp ©2012*
I am pleased to be able to run this great article on waivers and releases by two of the leading adventure law attorneys. Part I was posted last week. It is Reprinted from The CampLine by permission of the American Camp Association and the authors.
Part II
Other Considerations
Is This Fair?
By Doyice Cotten
In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we addressed the issue of negligence. This post presents explains that there are 3 causes of injury and the possible liability associated with each.
Injury and risk may be placed into three categories. These categories are 1) inherent risks, 2) risks arising from negligent behavior of the provider, and 3) risks arising from extreme or aggravated provider behavior that goes beyond ordinary negligence.
By Doyice Cotten
In last week’s post Understanding Negligence and Liability (Part 1), we addressed this issue of negligence. This post presents another example to help the reader better understand the concept[1].
The following illustration regarding Happy Holiday Stables should help the reader to better understand what constitutes negligence.
Duty
To illustrate, suppose Happy Holiday Stables rents a horse to a novice rider for a trail ride.
By Doyice Cotten
In September, we ran an article showing which states currently enforce parental waivers. The next week we were told of two recent cases dealing with the subject and in the process of searching for them, found a total of three new relevant cases from three separate states – Maryland, Indiana, and Delaware. Two of the courts enforced the waiver while one did not. We have since posted a summary of each case and this post is a revision of the September summary.
Sport & Recreation Attorneys
Reb Gregg — Adventure Law Attorney
Reb Gregg is a leading attorney, lecturer and writer in legal liability issues for adventure, education and recreation based outdoor programs. Reb Gregg is a licensed attorney in Houston, Texas. He has served as president of the Houston Bar Association and on the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas. For the past 15 years Reb has worked primarily with recreation and adventure-based programs and is a leading practitioner,
By Doyice J. Cotten
This update is taken from Waivers & Releases of Liability, 8th ed. by Doyice and Mary Cotten. It summarizes the most recent state case law regarding the enforceability of waivers for minors. For those requiring more information, the book has 14 fact-filled pages giving more detail than is possible here.
States that have or do enforce waivers for minor participants
First, waivers signed only by a minor are not enforceable in any state.
By Corinna Charlton, Charlton Equine Law
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Corinna for this contribution to SportWaiver.com. She is an equine attorney in San Francisco. This article originally ran in her blog, http://ribbonsandredtape.blogspot.com/ on June 7, 2012.
“It’s the Friends that make us Nervous!”
My younger brother Collin (shown in the photo) is a polo superstar; he has gone to numerous interscholastic and intercollegiate national polo finals,
Editor’s Note: We already know that risks abound in sport and recreational activities. There are, however, many defenses available that can serve as protection from liability. A major defense that is sometimes available for providers is immunity. Immunity comes in many forms, but today’s article focuses on immunity that is available for a particular sport – skateboarding. Similar immunity statutes exist in some states for other activities (e.g., snow mobiling, equine activities, sport shooting, outfitters and guides,
by Charles R. Gregg
Readers will find that this to be an informative legal liability article. “Reb” Gregg is one of the nation’s top adventure law attorneys. This article originally appeared on Reb’s website.
Q. How do I run a good program without being sued?
A. You can’t. People can and may sue you, with or without justification. And even the best program can make mistakes which might provoke the lawsuit.
