John C. Ratliff once bubbled...
I am not a lawyer, and cannot comment on international law at all (which would apply here). But I have some experience in the safety field within the United States, and here a person simply cannot sign away their right to sue. Those releases are only worth something as a deterrent to having someone file a suit in the first place, and not worth much once someone gets into court. Maybe someone who has law experience, especially for international law, could also comment on this.
SeaRat
I am a lawyer and I work mostly in the field of civil litigation, in business disputes and injury cases.
The idea that you cannot sign away your right to sue in the United Staes is not correct.
Before I go any further, understand that enforceability of waivers of this type is almost always a matter of state, not federal law. That means that the law concerning enforceability of waivers, in general, is different in every state. Some states will not enforce these waivers as a matter of public policy. However, such waivers are enforceable in many states.
Michigan, where I live is one of those states. Not long ago, the Michigan appellate courts had to deal with a general written waiver signed by a woman who had to sign it as a condition of joining a health club. The language of the waiver in essence released the club for any injury she received on the premises. She was seriously injured when a mirror on the wall came loose and fell on her while she was stretching on the floor. She argued that the waiver should not protect the club from liability for such things as defects in the structure of the building, as opposed to the expected dangers of using or being near exercise equipment. The Michigan court ruled that the waiver meant what it said - it released the club from every type of liability for every type of injury, from every cause, and that was that. As a matter of contract, if she didn't want to sign away her right to sue, she could go and exercise somewhere else.
So, such general waivers can be and are broadly enforced, at least somewhere in the United States. I am sure Michigan is not the only state where this is true.
I do not know if such waivers are enforceable in other countries. I suspect there are places where they are strictly enforced.
In places where the waivers are broadly enforced, you would be barred from suing, even if the boat ran you over or left you behind, as long as they did it by accident. If they purposely injured or abandoned you, that would amount to criminal behavior, and brings up entirely different issues.
