Alternative to Injury Waivers
In this earlier post about injury waivers no longer being valid in Florida, I listed some reasons to continue to use injury waivers. Michael Wetzel posted an intriguing comment:
I recommend "participation agreements" which employ a mediation then arbitration (med/arb) clause instead of release language. Courts will enforce the agreements, making parties use ADR, which saves time and expense and provides greater predictability in outcome. Insurance companies should be notified and allowed to participate, but the settlements/awards are covered by the "duty to pay" policy language.
I am an enthusiastic supporter of mediation, even though I joke that a successful mediation takes all the fun out of being a trial lawyer. I have had more mixed results with arbitration. Just because someone is an arbitrator does not mean that they have any more knowledge or expertise about a particular subject than anyone else. Sometimes you get a great arbitrator who does have specialized knowledge. Sometimes you have only narrowed your pool of uninformed factfinders to a single person.
