Your Gym Liability Waiver Made Easy

A liability waiver can be very effective to dissuade people from suing your gym. If an injured person files a lawsuit against you, a proper liability waiver can result in the case being swiftly dismissed. Liability waivers protect against the most common lawsuits against gyms: negligence. The allegation might be negligent hiring, negligent instruction or training, or other allegations of negligence but a properly worded liability waiver will, in most cases protect against those claims. In this way, waivers can operate as a “get out of this lawsuit free” card. Together with proper liability insurance and maintaining quality equipment, having a well-crafted liability waiver specific to your gym location and fitness services can be a critical step in protecting your business.

Your attorney will evaluate how the injured member claims they were injured; for example, the person may allege they received negligent instruction from your employee and this caused them injury. Your attorney will look at the member’s signed waiver to see if it specifically covers injuries stemming from alleged “negligent training or instruction.” If the waiver contains that language, the attorney will file a quick motion with the court attaching that waiver and ask the judge to dismiss the case. This is how waivers operate to have potentially costly lawsuits dismissed at their onset.

No gym should be operating without a waiver. If you don’t have a waiver, you should speak with an attorney with experience representing gyms, health clubs, and/or boutique fitness studios to prepare one for you. If you are using a waiver that was not prepared by your attorney or if you otherwise think your waiver might not be effective, have an experienced attorney review it. A proper waiver should be tailored to your business and it should specifically list the main ways in which a person could be injured while working out in your space.

In short, it is a bad idea. A waiver only works if it expressly warns of the exact cause of injury. Your waiver should be tailored to your gym’s offerings – not the gym down the block. Does your gym specialize in weight lifting, pilates, or do you use a specific machine or equipment on which someone could be injured? If so, your waiver should mention the risks specific to that equipment or modality. General waivers for “any and all” injuries that occur at your gym will not work.An attorney can also advise you concerning waiver storage, production to the member, and to make sure that you are having absolutely everyone working out in your space (including drop-ins) sign a waiver before working out.

Your waiver should be drafted so you are covered if that gym member works out at any location operated by your gym. The same waiver can be used in different states but you should speak with an attorney regarding how your specific state treats waivers. Most states honor waivers if they are properly worded, signed by the member, and if they apply to the particular incident/injury prompting the lawsuit however, a very small number of states do not allow liability waivers. Some language in your waiver may need to be different depending on the laws of your state and should specify your desired jurisdiction.

Your liability waiver should absolutely be specific to your gym’s offerings and worded in a way so that it applies whether you are training your members in your gym, outside somewhere, if they are training alone on your premises, or if you expand to virtual fitness.

A gym membership agreement and liability waiver must be presented as separate agreements. Courts need to see that your members considered the member contract and then separately, reviewed the waiver. The waiver should be clearly labeled LIABILITY WAIVER and no fine print.

WaiverSign note: WaiverSign can facilitate multiple agreements with a single signing link. You can build out separate documents for your gym membership agreement, your waiver, and any other agreements you need to have signed. Each agreement is presented and signed individually, with individually signed copies of each sent to the gym member and stored for easy access in WaiverSign.

Yes. Any attorney should want to speak with you and should not charge for getting to know you, your business, and giving basic legal advice. You can speak with other gym owners in your area or in your network for a referral to an attorney who can be a great partner for you. Most attorneys charge by the hour so it is important to reach an understanding with your attorney concerning a budget for a particular project (i.e. how long the project will take will determine its cost). Attorneys should provide an approximate budget for you for each project so there are no surprises.

A waiver for your business should take an experienced attorney about 1-2 hours (probably closer to one hour). Attorneys charge by the hour and hourly rates can be hundreds of dollars per hour so make sure that you are hiring an attorney with a reasonable hourly rate. When you hire an attorney, have them give you an estimate of how long a project will take them so you can make sure you are ok with the cost before proceeding.