Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Waivers for minors

Many moons ago I was president of a ski club at the company where I worked.
The company decided to stop sponsoring clubs and told all the clubs, ski
club, camera club, etc. we could still use space in the company for meeting,
etc., but we needed to incorporate if we wanted to still exist. 

What I learned in the process of incorporation was an eye opener. On all
our trips we always had a waiver signed - releasing the club of liability.
What our lawyer told us was while that was a good idea in reality it was
worth about as much as the paper it was written on if you went to court.
It was better to have it than not but it was no protection. 

Some of the equine zero liability laws are pretty good, there are situations
in which you can sue and collect - like negligence. 

Truman

SandyDSA@xxxxxxx wrote:
> In a message dated 7/24/2002 4:39:23 AM Pacific Standard Time, plasmatica@xxxxxxxxxxx
> writes:
>   
>   
> >  This case was 
> >  about a teenage boy training on a ski racing course who smacked a tree adn
> >     
> >  ended up blind.  Though his parents had signed a minor release form waiving
> >     
> >  sueing, they sued anyway, claiming negligence on the part of those who set
> >     
> >  up the course.
> >     
>     
>     
>  You know what? I don't know about all of you, but I for one am SO SICk and
> tired of people engaging in activities which are like, SO CLEARLY challenging,
> to say the least, perhaps NOT being schooled well enough to do it - then
> when something goes wrong, they sue. What IS THIS??
>     
>  If a judge has to spend any amount of time LOOKING for some kind of negligence,
> PROBABLY there WAS none, and the individual simply had no business doing
> what they were doing in the first place. Our daughters are not only being
> TAUGHT but seeing their parents as examples of responsibility and consequences.
> If you DON'T want to risk bashing into a tree, stay out of the forest - or
> get some quality instruction. It puts me in mind of the parents - moms particularly
> - who put their young daughters, 8-10 years old - into riding lessons, and
> scream bloody murder if they are not jumping fences and showing and winning
> inside of 6 weeks. (I don't take those people myself!) Then when little Janey
> goes off and breaks an arm, the parents sue the riding school. You wonder
> why lessons, boarding, etc are so expensive these days. That is why. No common
> sense or sense of personal responsibility. I now have to charge $40 an HOUR
> - with at least a few weeks spent on a line for ANY new student - thanks
> to teh costs of insurance.. So anyone who thinks th ese lesson costs are
> high - now you know. Grrr. Sorry - this just chaps my hide.:)
>     
>  San (off the sopabox now and into the shower)