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New Florida Law Reinstates Child Liability Waivers
Recently the Florida legislature passed a new law allowing parents to sign away their children's rights to sue for injuries caused by the inherent risks of an activity.
May 22, 2010 /Parenting PR News/ -- In 2008, the Florida Supreme Court held that parents who sign liability waivers allowing their children to participate in risky adventure activities are endangering their children's property and estate, and therefore not acting in their children's best interest.
As the court noted, child liability waivers protect businesses at the expense of children, which hardly seems a reasonable balancing of interests. Accordingly, the Florida Supreme Court held that in the absence of a statute clearly permitting child liability waivers, these waivers were unenforceable.
However, recently the Florida legislature passed legislation allowing businesses to revive the discredited waivers. This legislation allows parents to sign liability waivers releasing their rights to sue for injuries caused by the inherent risks of an activity. These waivers do not allow businesses to waive all liability; even if a parent signs a waiver, a business can still be held liable for harm arising from negligence. However, these waivers are likely to prevent many injured children from seeking compensation for their injuries.
Gov. Charlie Crist signed the bill into law on Apr. 27, 2010.
The Consequences for Florida Children
What will this new law mean for Florida children? Presumably, parents will be required to sign standard liability waivers before children can participate in virtually any physical activity. Business and insurance companies will require waivers to protect their financial security and prevent lawsuits, even though such waivers are signed at the expense of children.
And what of children injured while participating in activities like climbing walls and go-karts? The new law creates two rebuttable presumptions: that the waiver is valid and that any injury suffered arose from risks inherent in the injury - i.e., risks for which the child cannot hold the business liable.
The term inherent risk is defined so as to protect businesses that fail to fully disclose risks associated with the activity in which the child will engage. As a result, parents may very well sign waivers without truly understanding the risks of the activity.
Even more problematic to children, inherent risk is defined to include negligent action by the child or other unrelated children participating in the activity. The law eradicates any expectation that a business operating a potentially dangerous activity for children has a duty to supervise those children to prevent their negligent actions.
In limited circumstances businesses may still be liable for injuries. Even with the new law, parents cannot waive liability for harms caused by the business' negligence. For example, if a child is ice skating and the rink's ceiling collapses, any resulting harm falls outside the scope of the enforceable waiver. A roof collapse is unlikely to be considered an inherent risk of ice skating. However, parents pursuing a legal claim bear the burden of demonstrating that the injury was not caused by an inherent risk.
Ultimately, the new law is likely to leave many children with serious injuries and limited recourse.
Article provided by Freidin Dobrinsky | Personal Injury Lawyers
Visit us at www.freidindobrinsky.com
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