One I Really Like

http://www.journeysend-nc.com/rider_participant_release.pdf

This is not hyperlinked. You have to paste it in your browser. I do law. You do tech stuff. K?

I just love this one. Without regard to the actual law in NC, I love the format, the spacing, the wording, the comprehensiveness and most of all the fact that people will actually read it.

I would have a hard time convincing a jury that my client did not see the risks or understand what this thing is saying.

Colors, bold and caps mixed with small letters. Breaks to keep each subject in focus. Legalese mixed with plain English and some actual personality. Lawyers forget the regular humans will be judging this stuff in court. Imagine the jury on this case. They are reading this release. They LIKE the defendant after they read it. They feel the defendant could not have been more clear. They will be very inclined to follow the law no matter how sympathetic the injured party is.

Assumption of the risk? Check. They have that covered.

All parties covered? Check. They have every possible plaintiff covered down to the sperm and a ovum of those plaintiffs. They have all of their own parties covered in singular and corporate form.

Proper use of font and spacing? Check. I had to post the link because just cutting and pasting ruined the perfection. Hears a scary secret. Judges only read the paragraph headers. We spend a year in law school just working on those because we know judge swill just read down the list of paragraph headers. Everything else has to be pointed out in oral arguments.

Understandable by a reasonable person? Check. The parts about the dangers could not be more clear and pointing out that beginners are more likely to get hurt means they KNOW you do not work your way up to injuries--you learn to avoid them with time.

I AM NOT SAYING COPY THIS waiver and use it. I have no idea if its valid in either NC or your state. I am saying copy the style, the form, the brilliance of it. I would be very surprised of those really great parts are the attorney's work product. I see a horseperson in there who knows whats what.

I wanted to jump ahead to posting what I like so the poor people who have been worried about their releases I didn't like can see why.

I think anything under 15 pages is just fine. You simply cannot CYA with 1 page these days. An average modern release is going to be 5-10 pages long with proper spacing and breaks. Don't shoot yourself in the foot by getting rid of large print and breaks to get the page count down. I know its tempting, but I have to wade through much more to get my teeth cleaned or an ultrasound.

I did not ask for permission to post this link, but its publicly posted on the internet and therefore fair game for non-commercial purposes. That said, I will be happy to take it down if asked. The creator might be flattered or might want to keep such a masterpiece to themselves. I can see this took lots of hard work and thought and they may not want to share.