Liability waiver · Rhode Island

Free Rhode Island Liability Waiver Form

A Rhode Island liability waiver form in Word, with the strict construction rule, assumption of risk, parental releases and electronic signing.

Download the Word template Sign it online with Waiver.com

Written by the Waiver.com editorial teamLast reviewed September 20, 2026

This page is general information about waiver law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change and courts read documents in context; have a licensed attorney in your state review your form before you use it.

RHODE ISLAND AT A GLANCE

Pre-injury releases of negligence: Unsettled
Railton v. Taylor
Parent signing for a minor: Limited: a parent can waive some claims, with conditions
R.I. Gen. Laws section 33-15.1-1, Parents as joint natural guardians, Releases
Gross negligence: Cannot be released. R.I. Gen. Laws section 32-6-5, Limitation on chapter
Electronic signatures: Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 42-127.1 (sections 42-127.1-3, 42-127.1-5, 42-127.1-7, 42-127.1-9)
Personal-injury limitation period: 3 years, R.I. Gen. Laws section 9-1-14(b)
Research status: Reviewed against primary sources on September 20, 2026. General information, not legal advice.

Rhode Island is a small state with a thin body of law on liability waivers, and a page that pretended otherwise would be useless. The Rhode Island Supreme Court has never set out a test for a pre-injury release signed by a paying customer. What it has done is decide, twice, that a clause written in general terms does not shield a party from its own negligence, and hold once, in a construction dispute, that shifting that risk by contract does not offend public policy when the parties bargain as equals. Everything else a Rhode Island business needs comes from statutes: the recreational use chapter, the equine and ski chapters, the health club chapter, the electronic transactions act and the limitation periods.

What follows is general information about Rhode Island law and it is not legal advice for your business. Because so much here is unresolved, a conversation with a Rhode Island lawyer before you put a form into use is worth more in this state than in most.

How Rhode Island treats liability waivers

The starting point is a lease case from 1897. In Railton v. Taylor a shopkeeper's goods were damaged by her landlord's mismanagement of the building's heating system. The lease said the lessor would not be liable for loss or damage caused by fire, water or otherwise, or in any other way or manner. The court held that the general words had to be read as relating to the same subject matter as the particular causes listed beside them, so the clause did not exempt the landlord from liability for his own negligence or that of his servants. It then added a line that still controls the shape of Rhode Island law: it refrained from intimating what the legal effect of such a stipulation would be had it been written into the lease plainly.

Seventy years later the court kept the same posture. Dower v. Dower's Inc. involved a landlord who had been sued over ice on a sidewalk and who tried to recover from his tenant under a general hold harmless clause. The trial justice threw the clause out on public policy grounds. The Supreme Court agreed with the result and disagreed with the reasoning. The declaration failed, it said, because the lease provisions were general rather than specific and did not unequivocally and explicitly cover the consequences of the landlord's own negligence. It corrected the trial justice's reading of Railton as a public policy rule and made the same disclaimer Railton had made, leaving the larger question untouched for a second time.

The one case that does reach public policy points the other way. Di Lonardo v. Gilbane Building Co. upheld a subcontractor's promise to indemnify a general contractor for injuries due to any negligence, including gross negligence, of the general contractor. The court called the arrangement a shift in the burden of buying insurance and said parties in adequate bargaining positions should be free to distribute that burden as they see fit. A footnote confirmed that exculpatory provisions, like indemnity provisions, get a strict reading against the party seeking to be exonerated. Corrente v. Conforti & Eisele followed it in another arm's length construction contract.

Two things about that line should worry a recreation operator. Every case involves commercial parties negotiating a contract, not a customer signing a form at a counter. And the General Assembly reacted to the Di Lonardo setting the following year by enacting section 6-34-1, which makes a construction indemnity for the promisee's own negligence void as against public policy. Rhode Island will void this kind of clause when it decides to. It has simply never decided anything about yours.

Waivers signed for minors in Rhode Island

Rhode Island is one of the few states with a statute that speaks to parental releases directly. Section 33-15.1-1(b) provides that a release given by both parents, or by a parent or guardian who has legal custody of a minor child, or by a guardian or adult spouse of a minor spouse, is valid and binding upon the minor where the amount of the release does not exceed ten thousand dollars in value.

Read it closely before relying on it. The operative limit is the amount of the release, which presupposes that the release has an amount. That describes a settlement, where a family accepts money and gives up a claim. An activity waiver signed before anything has happened has no amount at all, and no Rhode Island decision found in this research applies the statute to that situation. A business could argue the sentence authorises parental releases generally, subject to a ceiling. A plaintiff could argue it is a settlement rule and has nothing to say about pre-injury forms. Neither argument has been tested here.

Read the rest of chapter 33-15.1 and the picture stays thin. The chapter is about probate appointment of guardians of a minor's person and estate, inventories, claims and annual accounts. It contains no general requirement that a court approve a minor's personal injury settlement, which is a backstop that exists in several neighbouring states and does not appear in the Rhode Island statutes located in this research.

So collect the guardian signature and stop short of assuming it ends the child's claim. It still records consent to participate, authorises emergency treatment, addresses the parent's own derivative claim for the child's medical expenses under section 9-1-38, and documents that the family was told what the activity involves. If children are the core of your business, note that section 9-1-48 is what actually protects most people around them: unpaid volunteer coaches, instructors, umpires and officials in a nonprofit youth sports programme, and the nonprofit's officers and employees, are immune unless they acted in willful, wanton or reckless disregard for participant safety. Paid staff and for-profit operators are outside it.

What the waiver must say to hold up in Rhode Island

Rhode Island has no reported case about how a release should look. Nothing found in this research discusses type size, borders, capital letters or initials boxes. The Rhode Island question is about words, and the rule has not changed since 1897.

Write the release so it is specific and unequivocal. Name the business, its owners, employees, volunteers and contractors. Use one sentence that says the participant releases those people from claims for injury caused by their negligence, and put nothing in that sentence that narrows it. Do not build the release out of a list of hazards followed by a sweeping phrase, because that is the exact structure Railton refused to enforce, and Dower refused to draw inferences from words of general import in apparently all-inclusive catchall language. If the parties had meant to cover negligence, Railton said, they would doubtless have stipulated to that effect and not left so important a matter in any doubt.

Then spend equal care on the risk disclosure, because in Rhode Island it may be the stronger defence. Kennedy v. Providence Hockey Club holds that assumption of the risk remains a complete bar to recovery and was not folded into the comparative negligence statute, section 9-20-4, because a person who knowingly accepts a danger terminates the duty owed to them. But the standard is subjective. D'Andrea v. Sears, Roebuck and Co. keys it to what the particular plaintiff in fact sees, knows, understands and appreciates. A paragraph reciting that the activity involves risk of injury or death proves very little about a specific participant. A short, concrete list of what actually goes wrong in your activity, initialled by the person who signed it, proves a great deal.

Two Rhode Island statutes do dictate appearance, and if either covers you it overrides your own design choices. Equine professionals must post signs in black letters at least one inch high and include the statutory warning in clearly readable print in every written contract for instruction, services or the rental of tack, equipment or a horse. Health clubs must deliver a signed and dated written contract carrying the cancellation statement under the conspicuous caption BUYER'S RIGHT TO CANCEL.

Gross negligence and what a Rhode Island waiver cannot cover

No Rhode Island decision found in this research decides whether a release can bar a claim for gross negligence, recklessness or willful conduct, and no statute answers it for recreation businesses. That does not leave you without guidance, because the General Assembly draws the same line every time it writes an immunity.

The recreational use statute preserves liability for the willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition after discovering the user's peril. The equine statute preserves liability for an act of omission constituting willful or wanton disregard for the safety of the participant and for intentionally injuring the participant. The youth sports immunity is lost by willful, wanton or reckless disregard for participant safety, and the statute states expressly that proving conduct fell below ordinary standards of care is insufficient. The cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillator immunity stops at gross, willful or wanton negligence. At common law the same boundary appears as the duty a landowner owes a trespasser, which Berman v. Sitrin, quoting Cain v. Johnson, describes as a duty to refrain from willful or wanton conduct.

One Rhode Island case has enforced a clause that named gross negligence in terms, and that is Di Lonardo. It was a contract between a general contractor and a subcontractor, the court leaned on their equal bargaining positions, and section 6-34-1 voided that class of clause a year later. It is not authority for putting gross negligence into a customer form.

The sensible drafting response is to give up the ground you probably do not have. Say that the release covers negligence and does not extend to willful, wanton or reckless conduct or to intentional harm. Add a severability clause so that striking one sentence does not take the document with it. Then put the effort where a gross negligence claim will actually be fought: documented inspections, trained staff, incident reports and insurance limits that match the activity.

Electronic signatures in Rhode Island

Rhode Island adopted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act as chapter 127.1 of title 42. Section 42-127.1-7 carries the recognition rule in four short sentences: a record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form, a contract may not be denied effect solely because an electronic record was used in its formation, an electronic record satisfies a law requiring a writing, and an electronic signature satisfies a law requiring a signature.

Three neighbouring sections shape how you should run the signing. Section 42-127.1-5(b) applies the chapter only to transactions between parties each of which has agreed to conduct transactions by electronic means, with the agreement determined from the context and surrounding circumstances including the parties' conduct, so build a visible step where the participant chooses to sign electronically. Section 42-127.1-9(a) attributes an electronic record or signature to a person if it was the act of that person, provable in any manner including the efficacy of a security procedure, so keep the identity, address and timing data your system captures. Section 42-127.1-3(d) is the one businesses forget: a transaction subject to the chapter is also subject to other applicable substantive law. The act makes the signature count. It does nothing at all to rescue wording that fails the Railton and Dower specificity rule.

How to use this form in Rhode Island

Download the Word template and replace the bracketed placeholders with your business name, the activity, the location, and Rhode Island and the county in the governing law clause. Keep the release sentence intact and specific, rewrite the risk list so it describes hazards a participant would actually meet at your site, and keep the guardian block for anyone under eighteen. Delete the drafting notes before you publish it, and have a Rhode Island lawyer read the result, which matters more here than in states with a settled test.

Check whether a statute already governs your paperwork. If you charge for anything at all, chapter 32-6 gives you nothing, so the release and your insurance are the whole defence. If horses are involved, add the section 4-21-4 warning in clearly readable print and put up the one inch lettering. If you sell memberships, keep the waiver as a separate document from the health club contract, which has its own signing, cancellation and posting rules that cannot be waived. Set retention by the longest clock that applies: three years for an adult claim, and for a child, three years past the eighteenth birthday, which means holding a minor's file until that person is at least twenty two.

To collect signatures online, rebuild the form in Waiver.com with the release as its own labelled block and its own initials field, the risk list as a second block with a second initials field, and separate participant and guardian sections. Publish a version before you take the first signature so every record is tied to a fixed wording, a timestamp and the exact layout the signer saw, which is the evidence you will want if the specificity of your release is ever the issue.

Sample wording

These are the clauses courts read most closely, quoted from the downloadable template. Square brackets are placeholders; replace [State] with Rhode Island and review the whole document against the Rhode Island sections above.

FROM LIABILITY WAIVER AND RELEASE AGREEMENT

Acknowledgment and Assumption of Risk

I understand that [describe the activity, e.g. indoor rock climbing, a guided kayak tour, a fitness class] (the "Activity") involves inherent risks, dangers and hazards that cannot be eliminated regardless of the care taken to avoid injury. These risks include, without limitation: slips, trips and falls; collisions with other participants, spectators, equipment, structures or natural features; equipment that fails, is misused or is not properly adjusted; the conditions of the premises, weather, water or terrain; overexertion, dehydration, heat or cold; the actions or negligence of other participants; and the risk that staff may misjudge a participant's ability or the conditions. I understand that these risks may result in property damage, bodily injury, illness, permanent disability, paralysis or death.

I confirm that I am voluntarily choosing to take part with full knowledge of these risks. I ASSUME ALL RISKS OF PARTICIPATION, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, INCLUDING RISKS ARISING FROM THE ORDINARY NEGLIGENCE OF THE RELEASED PARTIES, to the fullest extent permitted by the law of the governing state named below.

Release of Liability

In consideration of being permitted to take part in [describe the activity, e.g. indoor rock climbing, a guided kayak tour, a fitness class] (the "Activity"), I, for myself and on behalf of my heirs, executors, administrators, assigns and next of kin, RELEASE, WAIVE AND DISCHARGE [Business Name], its owners, officers, employees, agents, volunteers, contractors, insurers, landlords and affiliated entities (together, the "Released Parties") from all claims, demands, losses and liability for bodily injury, illness, death or property damage arising out of or related to my participation, WHETHER CAUSED BY THE ORDINARY NEGLIGENCE OF THE RELEASED PARTIES OR OTHERWISE, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

This release does not apply to claims arising from gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct, or to any other claim that cannot be released under the law of the governing state named below.

Parent or Guardian Consent (for a participant under 18)

I am the parent or legal guardian of the minor participant named below and I have the legal authority to sign for them. I have read this document, I have explained the risks of [describe the activity, e.g. indoor rock climbing, a guided kayak tour, a fitness class] (the "Activity") to the minor in terms they understand, and I consent to their participation.

To the fullest extent permitted by the law of the governing state, I make every acknowledgment, release, waiver and promise in this document on behalf of the minor and on my own behalf, and I agree to indemnify the Released Parties against any claim brought by or on behalf of the minor to the extent the law allows. I understand that some states limit or do not allow a parent to release a minor's claims, and that in those states the minor's own claims may not be affected by my signature.

I authorize [Business Name] to obtain emergency medical treatment for the minor if I cannot be reached, and I agree to pay for that treatment.

DOWNLOAD THIS TEMPLATE

The Rhode Island liability waiver, ready to edit.

An editable Word document with every section above, bracketed placeholders, signature blocks for an adult and for a parent or guardian, and a note reminding you to have a local attorney review it. Free, no email required.

Word (.docx), about 1300 words. This is a general template, not legal advice.

Download .docx Or sign it online

COMMON QUESTIONS

Rhode Island liability waiver questions

Are liability waivers enforceable in Rhode Island?

Nobody can say with confidence, and that is the honest answer. The Rhode Island Supreme Court has twice looked at clauses that tried to shield a party from its own negligence, in Railton v. Taylor and in Dower v. Dower's Inc., and both times it decided the case on wording alone while expressly refusing to say whether such a clause is valid at all. Di Lonardo v. Gilbane Building Co. later upheld own-negligence risk shifting between a general contractor and a subcontractor, but it rested that holding on the parties being in adequate bargaining positions. No Rhode Island decision found in this research applies any of it to a customer signing an activity form.

What does a Rhode Island waiver have to say to cover the business's own negligence?

It has to say so specifically and unequivocally. Dower held that general catch-all wording is fatally defective because it does not explicitly reach the drafter's own negligence, and Railton held that general terms of exemption are restricted and limited by the particular recitals placed beside them. In practice that means a separate sentence naming your business and its staff and using the word negligence, rather than a long list of hazards ending in or otherwise.

Can a parent sign a liability waiver for a child in Rhode Island?

Rhode Island has a statute, which is more than most states offer, but it does not answer the question cleanly. Section 33-15.1-1(b) says a release given by both parents, or by a parent or guardian with legal custody, is valid and binding upon the minor where the amount of the release does not exceed ten thousand dollars in value. That wording fits a settlement with a payment attached, and no Rhode Island decision found in this research applies it to an activity waiver that carries no amount. Collect the guardian signature, and do not treat it as the end of the child's claim.

Does the Rhode Island recreational use statute protect my business?

Only if you charge nothing. Chapter 32-6 protects an owner who invites or permits use of land for recreational purposes without charge, and section 32-6-5(a)(2) expressly preserves liability where the owner charges the people who enter for recreational use. A ticket price, a lesson fee, a rental or a membership takes you outside the chapter entirely, which is why a paying operator has to rely on the release, the risk disclosure and insurance instead.

Can a Rhode Island waiver cover gross negligence?

Assume not. No Rhode Island decision found in this research holds that a release reaches gross negligence, recklessness or willful conduct, and every Rhode Island immunity statute a recreation business touches stops at the same line. The recreational use statute preserves liability for willful or malicious failure to guard or warn, the equine statute for willful or wanton disregard of participant safety, and the youth sports immunity for willful, wanton or reckless disregard. Say in the document that the release covers negligence only, and add a severability clause.

Is an electronic waiver valid in Rhode Island?

Yes. Rhode Island adopted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act as chapter 42-127.1 of title 42. Section 42-127.1-7 says a record or signature cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic and that an electronic signature satisfies a law requiring a signature. Section 42-127.1-5(b) applies the chapter only between parties who have agreed to transact electronically, and section 42-127.1-9(a) attributes a signature to the person whose act it was. Section 42-127.1-3(d) adds that the transaction is still subject to other substantive law, so the wording rules still apply.

How long does someone have to sue in Rhode Island after signing a waiver?

Three years for personal injury under section 9-1-14(b), running from accrual. Section 9-1-19 pauses the clock for anyone under eighteen, of unsound mind, or outside the United States when the claim accrues, and section 9-1-38 gives three years past a child's eighteenth birthday for medical expenses incurred during minority. That is why records for adults and records for children need different retention periods.

Does signing a waiver in Rhode Island mean the participant assumed the risk?

Not automatically, but the risk paragraph is doing real work. Kennedy v. Providence Hockey Club holds that assumption of the risk remains a complete bar to recovery in Rhode Island and was not absorbed by the comparative negligence statute. D'Andrea v. Sears, Roebuck and Co. sets a subjective test keyed to what the particular plaintiff in fact sees, knows, understands and appreciates, so a generic paragraph proves little and a specific, initialled list of your activity's hazards proves a lot.

OFFICIAL RESOURCES

Official Rhode Island resources

Activity-specific Rhode Island statutes

Public Use of Private Lands, Liability Limitations (the recreational use statute), R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 32-6Section 32-6-3 says an owner who directly or indirectly invites or permits any person to use property for recreational purposes without charge does not extend any assurance that the premises are safe, does not confer invitee or licensee status, and does not assume responsibility for injury. Section 32-6-2 defines charge as the admission price or fee asked in return for invitation or permission to enter, defines owner to include the state and municipalities since the 1996 amendment, and lists recreational purposes broadly, from hunting and fishing to hiking, horseback riding, bicycling and nature study. The whole thing turns on the words without charge. Section 32-6-5(a)(2) preserves any liability that otherwise exists for injury suffered in any case where the owner charges people who enter for recreational use, with a narrow exception for consideration paid under a lease to the state. A commercial operator who sells tickets, lessons, rentals or memberships is therefore outside this chapter, which is exactly why a release matters to that operator and not to the landowner who opens a field for free.
Responsibility and Liability of Ski Operators and Skiers, R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 41-8Section 41-8-1 imposes duties on the operator: notice at the top of any lift serving a trail being maintained while open, identified maintenance vehicles with flashing or rotating lights, lighting on snowmobiles, marked snowmaking hydrants, a sign system on buildings, tramways, trails and slopes, and a duty to maintain and operate the area in a reasonably safe condition or manner. Section 41-8-2 puts the rest on the skier: conduct within the limits of one's ability, control of speed and course, staying clear of grooming and snowmaking equipment and lift towers, sole judgment of one's ability to negotiate any trail or slope, primary duty to avoid collision with a skier below, and primary responsibility for collision with any obstruction. The chapter says nothing about releases, so it allocates duties without answering whether a Rhode Island release is enforceable.
Exemption From Liability Arising From Equine Activities, R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 4-21Rhode Island's equine immunity is weaker than the usual model act. Section 4-21-2 removes liability for injury or death resulting from the inherent risks of equine activities only unless the sponsor, professional or other person is demonstrated to have failed to exercise due care under the circumstances towards the participant, so ordinary negligence pierces it. Section 4-21-3 adds the familiar exceptions for faulty tack, failure to match participant to horse, dangerous conditions of the land or facilities, willful or wanton disregard for participant safety and intentional injury, and excludes horse racing meetings under chapter 41-3. Section 4-21-4 requires posted signs in black letters at least one inch high and the statutory warning in clearly readable print in every written contract for professional services, instruction, or rental of tack, equipment or a horse. Riding schools are separately licensed under chapter 5-13.
Health Clubs, R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 5-50Chapter 5-50 regulates the membership contract, not the release. Section 5-50-1 defines a health club broadly enough to include gyms, sports clubs, aerobic dance studios and anywhere exercise facilities are available for a fee, while excluding nonprofits, member-owned private clubs and state or municipal facilities. Section 5-50-4 requires a written contract signed and dated by the buyer, a copy delivered at signing, a ten business day cancellation right under the conspicuous caption BUYER'S RIGHT TO CANCEL, clearly and conspicuous disclosure of relocation, disability, death and change of ownership rights, refunds within fifteen business days, and the same notice posted on the premises. A non-compliant contract is voidable at the buyer's option, and the cancellation right cannot be waived or surrendered. Section 5-50-10 preserves every common law right a buyer has against the seller, so nothing in the chapter helps a club defend an injury claim.
Immunity from civil liability, Sports teams, R.I. Gen. Laws section 9-1-48Unpaid volunteers who serve as managers, coaches, instructors, umpires, referees or officials in a youth sports programme run by or under the auspices of a nonprofit corporation, and the nonprofit's directors, trustees, officers and employees, are immune unless their acts or omissions were committed in willful, wanton or reckless disregard for the safety of participants, and proof that conduct fell below ordinary standards of care is expressly insufficient. Paragraph (b) extends the same protection to interscholastic and intramural programmes run under the Rhode Island Interscholastic League. Paragraph (c) withholds immunity for negligent operation of a motor vehicle. A youth sports programme is any programme organised for recreational athletic competition or instruction whose participants are nineteen or younger or are disabled regardless of age. Reimbursement of actual expenses, and a modest honorarium for officials, do not count as compensation.

Cases and statutes cited on this page

Railton v. Taylor, 20 R.I. 279, 38 A. 980 (1897)The oldest Rhode Island authority on exculpatory wording. A lease clause exempting the lessor from loss by fire, water or otherwise, or in any other way or manner, was held not to exempt him from liability for his own negligence or that of his servants, because general terms are restricted by the particular recitals used with them. The court expressly refrained from intimating what the legal effect of a plainly written exculpatory stipulation would be.
Dower v. Dower's Inc., 100 R.I. 510, 217 A.2d 437 (1966)Adopts the rule of strict construction against the party seeking to be exonerated, tracing it to Railton. Holds that a lessee's general promise to hold the lessor harmless was fatally defective because the provisions were general rather than specific and did not unequivocally and explicitly indemnify the lessor for the consequences of his own negligence. Corrects the trial justice's reading of Railton as a public policy rule and makes the same disclaimer Railton made, leaving the public policy question open.
Di Lonardo v. Gilbane Building Co., 114 R.I. 469, 334 A.2d 422 (1975)The closest Rhode Island has come to blessing own-negligence risk shifting. Holds that a subcontractor's promise to indemnify the general contractor regardless of the general contractor's negligence, including gross negligence, is valid and in no way violates public policy, reasoning that the shift is simply a shift in the burden of buying insurance and that parties in adequate bargaining positions should be free to distribute it by contract. Footnote 1 adds that although an exculpatory provision differs from an indemnity provision, the law in this state requires a strict reading against the party seeking to be exonerated in both cases.
Corrente v. Conforti & Eisele Co., 468 A.2d 920 (R.I. 1983)Enforces a sufficiently specific hold harmless clause between a general contractor and a subcontractor who dealt with each other at arm's length, describing Dower as the specificity rule and Di Lonardo as the public policy holding. Again a commercial setting, not a consumer form.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 6-34-1, Construction indemnity agreements, R.I. Gen. Laws section 6-34-1Shows the General Assembly overriding the Di Lonardo result in the one setting it looked at. A construction contract clause indemnifying the promisee against liability for damage proximately caused by the promisee's own negligence is against public policy and void. Nothing comparable has been enacted for recreation, fitness or event businesses, so the statute cuts both ways: it shows Rhode Island will void own-negligence shifting when it chooses to, and it shows the legislature has not chosen to here.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 33-15.1-1, Parents as joint natural guardians, Releases, R.I. Gen. Laws section 33-15.1-1(b)Subsection (b): a release given by both parents or by a parent or guardian who has the legal custody of a minor child, or by a guardian or adult spouse of a minor spouse, is valid and binding upon the minor where the amount of the release does not exceed ten thousand dollars in value. Subsection (a) preserves the probate court's power to appoint a guardian of the minor's person and estate and any court's power to order otherwise. This is the only Rhode Island rule on parental releases found in this research.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 9-1-19, Disability postponing running of statute, R.I. Gen. Laws section 9-1-19A person who is under eighteen, of unsound mind or beyond the limits of the United States when the cause of action accrues may bring it within the time limited by chapter 9-1 after the impediment is removed. For a child that means three years from the eighteenth birthday for a personal injury claim.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 9-1-38, Limitation of actions for medical expenses incurred by minors, R.I. Gen. Laws section 9-1-38Actions for medical expenses incurred by a minor as a result of a third party's negligence, whether the minor or the parents or guardian paid them, must be brought within three years after the minor reaches eighteen. Given retroactive as well as prospective effect. It is the reason a parent's own derivative claim can outlive the ordinary three year period.
Chapter 33-15.1, Guardianship of Minors, index of sections, R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 33-15.1Read section by section. The chapter covers probate appointment of guardians of a minor's person and estate, inventory, claims, investment of surplus funds and annual accounts. Apart from section 33-15.1-1(b) it says nothing about releasing a child's tort claim, and it contains no general court approval requirement for a minor's settlement of the kind several other states impose by statute.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 9-1-48, Immunity from civil liability, Sports teams, R.I. Gen. Laws section 9-1-48Relevant to children's programmes because it, not a waiver, is what protects most volunteers. Unpaid volunteer managers, coaches, instructors, umpires, referees and officials in a nonprofit youth sports programme, and the nonprofit's directors, trustees, officers and employees, are not liable unless their acts or omissions were committed in willful, wanton or reckless disregard for participant safety, and the statute says falling below ordinary standards of care is insufficient. Paid staff, for-profit operators and negligent motor vehicle operation are outside it.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 32-6-5, Limitation on chapter, R.I. Gen. Laws section 32-6-5(a)(1)Nothing in the recreational use chapter limits liability that otherwise exists for the willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition, use, structure or activity after discovering the user's peril. Subsection (a)(2) separately preserves liability where the owner charges for recreational use of the land.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 4-21-3, Exceptions, R.I. Gen. Laws section 4-21-3(b)The equine immunity does not reach faulty tack the provider knew or should have known about, a failure to make reasonable and prudent efforts to match participant to horse, a known dangerous condition of the land or facilities, an act of omission constituting willful or wanton disregard for participant safety, or intentional injury.
Berman v. Sitrin, 991 A.2d 1038 (R.I. 2010)Cliff Walk quadriplegia case. Quotes Cain v. Johnson, 755 A.2d 156, 160, 164 (R.I. 2000), that under Rhode Island law a landowner owes a trespasser no duty except to refrain from willful or wanton conduct, and that section 32-6-5(a)(1) is simply a legislative codification of that common law. Also quotes Tantimonico v. Allendale Mutual Insurance Co., 637 A.2d 1056, 1060 to 1061 (R.I. 1994), for the point that recreational users are treated as trespassers.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 4-21-4, Posting and notification, R.I. Gen. Laws section 4-21-4The only Rhode Island statute located in this research that dictates how participant-facing text must look. Equine professionals must post signs in black letters at least one inch high, and every written contract for professional services, instruction, or the rental of equipment, tack or an equine must contain the statutory warning in clearly readable print.
R.I. Gen. Laws section 5-50-4, Health club contract contents, R.I. Gen. Laws section 5-50-4(b)(2) and (g)A second example of Rhode Island legislating appearance rather than leaving it to the courts. The cancellation statement must appear under the conspicuous caption BUYER'S RIGHT TO CANCEL, the post-cancellation rights must be set out clearly and conspicuously in writing, and the notice must also be posted clearly and conspicuously on the premises.

Where the law is unsettled

The enforceability stance is unsettled and that is not a hedge. Railton in 1897 and Dower in 1966 both expressly declined to decide whether a plainly written exculpatory stipulation is valid, and Di Lonardo answered the public policy question only for commercial parties in adequate bargaining positions. No Rhode Island Supreme Court decision applying that line to a consumer release for a recreational, fitness or event business was located in this research. Watch for one, because it would change this page.
Whether section 33-15.1-1(b) reaches a pre-injury waiver is genuinely open. Its language, a release whose amount does not exceed ten thousand dollars in value, fits a settlement rather than an activity form, and no decision applying it either way was found. Rhode Island also has no statute found in this research requiring court approval of a minor's personal injury settlement, unlike several neighbouring states, so do not assume that backstop exists.
The CourtListener search API, which was the intended discovery tool for Rhode Island Supreme Court and District of Rhode Island decisions, returned HTTP 429 with a retry window of roughly sixteen hours for every request after one successful query, and every general web search engine tried refused automated queries or returned unrelated results. Case law on this page therefore comes from the Caselaw Access Project, where each opinion was read in full at the URL cited. No District of Rhode Island decision predicting Rhode Island law on releases could be located, and none is cited here.
The live Rhode Island statute servers at webserver.rilegislature.gov and webserver.rilin.state.ri.us timed out on every request during this research, and law.justia.com refused automated access. Every statutory quotation here was read from an Internet Archive capture of the General Assembly's own page, and those archive URLs are what is cited. Confirm the current wording on the live site, which should load in an ordinary browser, before relying on any section.
No Rhode Island authority was found on two points a business will ask about: whether a court here would treat a standard activity waiver as a contract of adhesion, and what conspicuousness a release must have. Rhode Island's rule is about specific wording, not typeface, so a form that satisfies Railton and Dower on words may still be attacked on grounds no Rhode Island court has yet ruled on.

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