Maison Law can help you understand your options when you’re injured by something unsafe on a property in California. Unsafe conditions on a property is something you’ll find throughout California, and some carry more risk than others. Usually, the people that run these properties try to use liability waivers in the event of an accident to protect themselves. But under California safety law, you still have options that our team can help you with. Set up a free consultation today to talk it over.
What Does Civil Code § 1668 Say About Liability Waivers in California?
The purpose of a liability waiver is pretty simple: limit the legal responsibility of a business if you get hurt. You’ll usually be asked to sign one before:
But just because you sign one doesn’t mean the business is off the hook for everything. That’s where California Civil Code § 1668 comes in. Specifically, it says that:
- Any contract that serves the purpose of exempting anyone from responsibility for fraud, willful injury on a property, or violation of the law either willful or negligent is against the law.
Basically, property owners or management can make you sign a liability waiver, but that waiver doesn’t hold up if they:
- Didn’t fix something dangerous they knew about or reasonably should have known about.
- Allowed defective or poorly maintained equipment to cause injuries.
- Didn’t take reasonable steps to protect customers from potential harm.
- Tried to use a waiver to avoid responsibility for things that violate the law.
- Included terms that attempt to waive liability that California law doesn’t allow them to avoid.
The key is figuring out what caused your injury and whether the waiver actually covers what happened. Signing one doesn’t automatically mean you gave up every right to file a claim and get financial help for your injuries. But at the same time, not every injury makes a business responsible. The details matter.
How the Injury Claims Process Works With a Liability Waiver
If you signed a liability waiver and got hurt, you may still have options for filing a claim. The first step is figuring out who was responsible for your accident and whether the waiver actually protects them from your claim. To do that, you generally need to show negligence. That just means:
- Someone in charge didn’t take reasonable steps to prevent your injury from happening.
That’s where those above examples come in, like if a gym didn’t maintain its equipment or a cruise ship didn’t have enough safety equipment available. If that problem leads to an injury, the waiver doesn’t automatically end things.
From there, it’s about actually filing your claim. To do that, you usually can:
- File an insurance claim outside of court.
- File a personal injury lawsuit in court.
Once you have a valid claim, the next step is figuring out your damages. That’s just the legal term for what you’ve lost because of your injuries. Depending on what happened, your damages usually involve things associated with your:
- Current and future medical expenses
- Current lost income or future lost earnings
- Repair/replacement costs for damaged property
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Reduced quality of life
Of course, recovering damages isn’t automatic. You still need to show what caused your injuries, who was responsible, and how the accident has affected your life. The liability waiver is another part of that process, especially if the business is using it to argue that you can’t file a claim. It’s also important to pay attention to the deadline. Generally, you have two years from the date of your injury to file your claim. And crucially, signing a liability waiver doesn’t automatically shorten that deadline simply because the agreement says so.
But remember, it’s usually better to look into your options sooner rather than later. Waiting can make it harder to gather evidence, track down witnesses, and build your claim. The sooner you understand where you stand, the more time you’ll have to decide what to do next. And that’s where our team can help.
Maison Law Can Help You Understand Your Options After an Injury in California
Liability waivers can make an already difficult situation even more confusing. You get hurt, and then the business points to something you signed and tells you it isn’t responsible. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the business is right.
California Civil Code § 1668 puts limits on what a business can do to avoid responsibility, but it’s still a matter of actually going through the claims process. That usually means dealing with the business and its insurance company asking questions and pushing back. That’s when it makes sense to reach out to our team of California premises liability accident lawyers at Maison Law. We can can help you figure out where you stand by:
- Going over the liability waiver with you and explaining what it could mean for your claim.
- Gathering the information and evidence you need to show how you were hurt and who could be responsible.
- Looking into whether the business or someone else involved failed to take reasonable steps to keep you safe.
- Handling the back-and-forth with the business and its insurance company so you don’t have to.
If you’ve been injured in California and a business is using a liability waiver to avoid responsibility, don’t assume there’s nothing you can do. You might still be able to file an injury claim and hold them accountable, and our team can help you do that. Set up a free consultation today to get started.