Free release of liability form

Where a release of liability stops working

A release is a contract, and like any contract there are things it cannot do. Three limits matter more than the rest. The first is the conduct line. Almost everywhere, a release can cover ordinary negligence but not conduct that goes beyond it. California puts the rule in statute: Civil Code section 1668 says contracts that aim to exempt anyone from responsibility for their own fraud, willful injury to another, or violation of law are against the policy of the law, and in City of Santa Barbara v. Superior Court (2007) the state supreme court held that a release of future gross negligence is unenforceable too. Clause 3 of the template carves all of that out immediately after the release itself, because a release drafted to cover everything invites a court to strike more of it than necessary. The second is the kind of business involved. In Tunkl v. Regents of the University of California (1963), California set out six characteristics of a contract affecting the public interest, among them a business of a type usually thought suitable for public regulation, a service of practical necessity offered to all comers, unequal bargaining power, a standard form with no option to pay for protection, and a customer placed under the provider's control. Courts in many states run through a version of that list, and a release that fits it is at risk whatever it says. The third is state law that voids releases outright. New York's General Obligations Law section 5-326 makes a release void and unenforceable where a pool, gymnasium, place of amusement or recreation, or similar establishment charges a fee for use. Virginia goes further still, through its courts rather than a statute: in Hiett v. Lake Barcroft Community Association (1992) its supreme court confirmed that a pre-injury release of liability for personal injury is void there. Montana voids such contracts in section 28-2-702 of its code, then allows an exception for sport and recreation, discussed below. Louisiana treats a clause excluding liability in advance for causing physical injury as null under article 2004 of its Civil Code. Check your own state before relying on a signature.

How to fill it in

Schedule A does the real work. Fill it in before anything else, and write it for the activity in front of you. A generic list copied across activities is the first thing a claimant's lawyer attacks.

• Schedule A: name the activity precisely, give the dates or season, the locations, and whether instruction or supervision is provided. Then tick every risk that genuinely applies and write in any that are missing. An unticked box is not a listed risk, so a half-finished list is worse than none.
• Schedule B: participant details, emergency contact, relevant medical conditions and insurance. Where there is no coverage, write "none" on the insurance line, so nobody can say the question was skipped.
• Schedule C: one block per minor, signed by a parent or legal guardian. The witness line is optional.
• Clause 5 keeps the statutory notice wording Montana requires for sport and recreation waivers. Leave it in, and if you are in Montana, bold it in the Word file as the statute requires. It is in capitals because conspicuousness is part of what makes a release enforceable.
• Clauses 6, 8 and 10 each have a strike-one choice: the costs clause, who supplies equipment, and photography permission.
• Clause 19: the state whose law governs and the county for disputes. Where the activity happens in a different state from your office, that state's rules on releases apply to the extent they cannot be varied by agreement.
• Give the participant the form in advance where you can. A release read in a car park two minutes before a climb is the kind that gets argued about.
• Keep the signed copy for as long as a claim could be brought, which is longer than you think where minors are involved, since the period for a child's claim can run from their 18th birthday.

Describe the risks or the release gets read narrowly

Courts read releases against the party that wrote them. A document that waives claims for "any and all injuries" without saying what could go wrong gives a judge every reason to read it as covering only the obvious, and nothing like the injury that actually happened. Montana shows how far this can go in statute. Section 27-1-753 allows a written waiver for ordinary negligence in a sport or recreational opportunity, but only where the waiver states the known inherent risks of that activity and carries a jury-trial notice in bold type. Clause 5 reproduces that notice and Schedule A is the list of risks. Even outside Montana, that pairing is worth copying: a specific list of risks alongside a clear statement of what is being given up. Specificity also protects the business that drafts it. If a release lists loose rock, weather and delayed rescue for a climbing trip, nobody can claim they thought the activity was risk-free. If it lists nothing, the only evidence of what the participant understood is their memory of the conversation.

Signing for a child usually does not bind the child

This is the most common misunderstanding about waivers, and it costs businesses real money. In Hojnowski v. Vans Skate Park (2006), the New Jersey Supreme Court held that a parent cannot waive a child's own future claim for negligence, because the state has an interest in protecting the child that the parent cannot bargain away. Florida reached the same conclusion in Kirton v. Fields (2008), and other states have too. The practical result is that a parent's signature binds only the parent, and the child can bring a claim later, often with a limitation period that only starts running when they turn 18. Colorado went the other way, by statute. Section 13-22-107 lets a parent release a child's prospective negligence claim, and the legislature said in the statute itself that it was rejecting the state supreme court's 2002 decision to the contrary. Even there the release cannot reach a willful and wanton, reckless, or grossly negligent act or omission. Clause 12 is written for both situations. The parent accepts the risks, releases their own claims, and promises not to bring a claim in breach of the release, and the clause says plainly that in states which do not permit it, the clause binds the parent and not the child. Saying so in the document leaves the enforceable parts standing instead of risking the whole clause.

Release, hold harmless, or settlement

Timing is what separates them. This document is signed before anything goes wrong, and the participant gives up claims they might have in future. A hold harmless agreement is a promise to cover somebody else's losses, which shifts risk instead of waiving a claim, and our hold harmless agreement page explains where it fits; clause 13 here is a narrow indemnity of that kind. A settlement agreement is for an incident that has already happened, and our settlement agreement page covers it.

Employees and volunteers are different

An employee injured at work is generally inside the workers' compensation system, and that system is usually the exclusive remedy against the employer. It is also one of the things an employee cannot sign away in advance, which is why clause 3 names workers' compensation rights specifically. Asking an employee to sign a release of liability for their own work tasks does not reduce exposure and can look bad later. Volunteers sit in an odder position. They are usually outside workers' compensation, so a release can do real work, though some states extend compensation cover to volunteers of certain organizations. Federal and state volunteer protection laws also give volunteers themselves some immunity for their own acts, which is separate from anything in this document. If the person signing is an independent contractor rather than a participant, a release is not the right instrument either. The contract should carry the insurance, indemnity and scope terms instead.

Getting it signed and keeping it

A waiver is only as good as the record of it. Electronic signature is fine for an ordinary release in the United States under the federal ESIGN Act and the state electronic signature laws that sit alongside it, and an electronic record has an advantage over paper: it captures the time of signing, which is often the fact in dispute. Sign it before the activity begins, never afterwards, and never with a date other than the real one. A release signed after an incident is a settlement, and one signed with the wrong date is evidence against the business that produced it. For repeat participants, a seasonal or annual release that names the season in Schedule A is normal, and clause 16 keeps it running for later dates in that period. Re-sign when the activity changes in kind, when a new season starts, and when a minor participant turns 18, because at that point they can sign for themselves.

Is a release of liability enough on its own

No, and treating it as the whole of a safety plan is the mistake behind most failed waivers. It is one layer. Liability insurance is another, and the waiver does not replace it. Staff training, equipment checks, written rules, incident reports and reasonable supervision are what stop the claim arising, and they are also the evidence that the conduct was not gross negligence when a release is challenged. There is a drafting link too. A release that carves out gross negligence, as clause 3 does, is only useful if the business can show its conduct stayed on the right side of that line. The documents that prove it are the maintenance log and the incident report, not the waiver.

A note on what this page is

This is a general-purpose template and general information, not legal advice. Whether a release is enforceable depends on the state, the activity, the wording and how it was presented, and the rules differ more between states here than in almost any other area of contract. The statutes and cases referred to on this page were checked in October 2026. If you run an activity business, have a local lawyer review your form once rather than relying on a download, and check it again if you expand into another state.