Years ago, in my town up north, I was a member of. a country club. For years there had been a 10' high diving board. One day a teenager was goofing around on the board. The lifeguard told her to stop horsing around. She didn't. This continued back and forth. Eventually the lifeguard kicked her out of the pool, and out of the pool area. She defied the lifeguard, went back up the ladder, did her silly dance and fell of the board onto the concrete. She got hurt. Not catastrophically, but hurt.
Of course, her family sued the country club, and one of the results was the diving board disappeared. It had been there for kids to enjoy for decades. It took one spoiled child to make it disappear.
The other day I went to play pickleball and the courts were wet. I chose not to play on the slippery courts, for fear of injury. Others played. Without such a waiver, had someone injured themselves due to their own decision, the owners of the court (you and I) would be much more likely to get sued, and some slick lawyer would make the argument that it was the duty of whoever owned the courts to have them locked up when conditions were "unsafe". If everyone who got hurt playing pickleball could sue, having that amenity would become impossible.
I've heard from lawyers that you really can't sign away your right to sue, but to have a signed waiver makes it much harder to get a frivolous suit very far down the road.
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