Most Participant Liability Insurance Policies now require that participants sign waivers. These waivers vary from policy to policy, and their legal implications vary jurisdiction to jurisdiction and case by case. If participant is a minor, a parent or legal guardian must sign waiver.

Generally, waivers are used when there is a risk of being held responsible for something that should not be your responsibility. In case of sports, it is a known that accidents do happen.

All participants, parents and legal guardians know this prior to registering. The waiver is primarily a proof that participant acknowledges, understands and accepts this risk, and as a consequence has waived right to hold sports organization responsible should an accident occur.

Are you really waiving anything?

The legal implications of waivers can be somewhat different. As liability suits generally take place in state or provincial courts much variance exists between jurisdictions. However, most do adhere to rule that you cannot sign away your rights. So if accident is due to negligence, participant may, in some cases, be able to hold organization liable regardless of waiver.

Further, many waivers are incorrectly worded and in some jurisdictions, these wordings may even be illegal. This is case for all jurisdictions that forbid a parent or legal guardian from waiving a minor's right or in case law holds one party strictly liable for certain acts regardless of any waiver.

Other elements that will affect legality of waivers include when a hardship is placed on those who will not sign waiver, where organization is for profit, age of participant, cause of injury, and where person signing waiver adds terms such as "under duress".

How do you proceed?

Here are a few tips on ice fishing. First of all, you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment.A set of five tipups and a hand auger are all you need to get started.

A set of basic tipups with line will cost around seventy-five to a hundred bucks. Tipups are a simple affair where you set cross sticks on ice with your spool below water line. Unless there is a lot of snow on ice this should not be a problem as water will even out to top of your hole. I know you’re saying, how do you keep line from freezing? This is accomplished through use of braided line, sometimes called squid line. Theses lines are usually 18-25 pound test. Fill your spools to within 1/4 inch of rim, for that big one that wants to run. After you have done this it’s time to add a leader. I normally use 8-14 pound test monofillament. If you are on a lake with a lot of large fish go with heavier leaders. I use a swivel between my squid line and leader. This gives bait a chance to move around without twisting line. It also makes it easier to change hooks, just buy pretied leaders and hook them on your swivel and you’re ready to go fishing.