By Raz Toor, Business and Corporate Lawyer, Falcon Law PC
Liability waivers are common in Ontario, but they are also frequently misunderstood.
Business owners sometimes assume that if a customer signs a document saying they “waive all liability,” the business is protected. In practice, it is rarely that simple. The wording matters, the way the waiver is presented matters, the type of business matters, and the underlying legal relationship matters.
I also tend to caution clients against treating a waiver as a substitute for proper insurance, safe operating procedures or well-drafted customer agreements. A waiver is one part of a broader risk-management structure.
At Falcon Law PC, we regularly advise entrepreneurs and business owners on customer-facing agreements, liability allocation and contractual risk. The starting point is usually not “how broad can we make this waiver?” It is understanding what the business actually does and where the realistic risks arise.
Start With the Actual Risk
A good liability waiver should be drafted around the business, not copied from another company.
The risks involved in a fitness studio are very different from those involved in an event venue, a recreational business, a beauty service or an online platform. Even businesses operating in the same industry may have different risks depending on their premises, equipment, staffing model and services.
One of the first things I usually want to understand is what could realistically go wrong.
Is there a physical activity that could cause injury? Are customers using equipment? Are third-party vendors coming onto the premises? Is the business providing instructions that customers are expected to follow? Could a customer damage property or injure another participant?
The waiver should respond to those risks rather than simply using broad language saying the customer assumes “all risks whatsoever.”
A Waiver Should Clearly Explain What the Customer Is Giving Up
A waiver is ultimately a contract. If a business intends to rely on it to restrict or exclude liability, the language should make that intention clear.
This becomes particularly important where the business intends to address claims involving negligence.
Ontario’s Occupiers’ Liability Act imposes a duty on occupiers of premises to take reasonable care to keep people entering the premises reasonably safe. The legislation also recognizes that an occupier may, in appropriate circumstances, restrict, modify or exclude that duty.
That does not mean every waiver will automatically be effective.
The wording, circumstances and manner in which the terms were brought to the customer’s attention can all matter. Ontario courts have upheld properly structured recreational waivers, including in Schnarr v. Blue Mountain Resorts Limited, but those decisions should not be treated as permission to hide sweeping exclusions in fine print.
If the business is asking someone to give up significant legal rights, the document should say so in language that an ordinary customer can understand.
How the Waiver Is Presented Matters
I see this issue come up frequently with online bookings.
A business may have an excellent waiver sitting on its website, but that does not necessarily help if customers can complete a booking without ever meaningfully agreeing to it.
A stronger process is usually one where the customer is presented with the waiver before participating or completing the relevant transaction and takes an affirmative step to accept it.
For an online business, that can mean a checkbox or electronic signature tied to the actual text or a clearly accessible copy of the agreement. Ontario’s Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 recognizes electronic contracts and electronic signatures, but the business should still be able to demonstrate what the customer agreed to and when.
From a practical perspective, recordkeeping is often as important as drafting. A waiver has limited value if, two years later, nobody can determine which version the customer accepted.
A Liability Waiver Is Not the Same as Informed Consent
This distinction has come up repeatedly in our work in 2026, particularly with healthcare, wellness and cosmetic businesses.
A patient or client consent form is intended to address matters such as the nature of a treatment, material risks, expected outcomes and consent to proceed. A liability waiver attempts to allocate legal risk between the customer and the business.
Those are not the same thing.
For example, we have worked this year with businesses offering cosmetic procedures, wellness services and mobile healthcare services. In those matters, the legal documentation may involve treatment consents, privacy documents, service terms and risk acknowledgements. Simply inserting a broad liability release into a medical consent form does not necessarily create a well-designed legal framework.
The documents should reflect their actual purpose.
Sometimes the Better Document Is a Customer Agreement or Terms of Service
Not every business needs a standalone waiver.
For many service businesses, the more important document is a properly drafted customer agreement dealing with payment obligations, cancellations, customer responsibilities, limitations of liability, disclaimers and dispute procedures.
The same applies to online businesses.
In 2026, we have also worked with online platforms and technology businesses where liability allocation formed part of broader Terms of Service rather than a separate one-page waiver. For those businesses, issues such as reliance on information, user-generated data, third-party services and limitations on damages are often more relevant than physical injury.
For an e-commerce or digital business, these issues are usually better dealt with as part of properly structured website terms and online business documentation.
The right question is therefore not always “Do I need a waiver?” It may be “What agreement should govern the relationship with my customer?”
Do Not Use a U.S. Template Without Reviewing It for Ontario
This is one of the more common drafting problems we see.
A business owner searches online, finds a U.S. waiver used by a similar business and changes the company name.
The document may contain references to laws that do not apply in Ontario, inappropriate dispute-resolution provisions, extremely broad releases, incorrect terminology or clauses that do not fit the business at all.
Even Canadian templates should be treated cautiously. A waiver drafted for skiing, martial arts or a children’s camp should not simply be repurposed for an event venue or wellness business.
Templates can be useful starting points, but the final agreement should match the actual business operation.
Event Businesses Need to Think Beyond the Customer
Event venues are a good example of why risk allocation can become more complicated than a single waiver.
The person booking the venue may not be the person who suffers an injury. Guests, caterers, decorators, bartenders, entertainers and other vendors may all enter the premises.
The booking agreement may therefore need to address matters such as damage to the property, conduct of guests, third-party vendors, alcohol, prohibited activities and indemnification obligations.
From operating an event business myself, I also see the practical side of this. The agreement has to deal with how people actually use the space. A clause that looks comprehensive on paper is not particularly useful if it ignores the situations that routinely arise during real events.
This is where a tailored venue or customer agreement is often more valuable than a generic release form.
Indemnities and Waivers Are Different
Business owners sometimes use the terms interchangeably, but they serve different purposes.
A waiver generally involves the customer agreeing not to pursue certain claims against the business.
An indemnity may require the customer to reimburse or protect the business where the customer’s actions cause a loss or result in a third-party claim.
For example, if an event customer brings in a vendor who damages the property, the business may want contractual recourse against the booking customer. That is different from asking the customer to waive their own claim for an injury.
The distinction becomes important when drafting the agreement and when deciding which obligations should survive after the event or service has ended.
Consumer Protection Rules Still Matter
A business cannot assume that a waiver overrides every statutory right available to a consumer.
Ontario consumer protection legislation contains rights that generally apply despite contractual language attempting to waive them.
That is another reason I am cautious with clauses stating that a customer “waives every claim of any kind under any law.” Language that is unnecessarily aggressive is not necessarily stronger.
A better document identifies the risks the business can legitimately allocate and avoids pretending that a private agreement can eliminate rights that legislation preserves.
Waivers Involving Children Require Additional Care
Businesses offering children’s programs, recreation, camps or family activities should be particularly careful with waiver language.
Having a parent or guardian sign a document does not mean the business should assume that every potential claim belonging to the child has been eliminated.
These arrangements often require a more careful combination of parental consent, assumption-of-risk wording, emergency authorization, rules of participation and appropriate insurance.
The documentation should also reflect whether the parent is agreeing to obligations personally, providing consent on behalf of the child, or doing both.
A Waiver Does Not Replace Insurance
This is worth stating plainly.
If a business carries on an activity where a serious claim is realistically possible, it should have appropriate insurance.
A waiver may improve the business’s legal position, but there can still be disputes about whether the waiver applies, whether it was properly accepted or whether the particular claim falls within the language of the agreement.
Good risk management generally involves several layers: appropriate insurance, proper corporate structuring, sensible operational procedures and clear customer contracts.
What I Usually Look For When Reviewing a Waiver
When reviewing an existing waiver, I am usually less concerned with making the document longer and more concerned with whether the important pieces actually work together.
- Does it clearly identify the business and the parties being released?
- Does it describe the real risks involved in the activity?
- Does the release actually cover the types of claims the business is concerned about?
- Is the customer given reasonable notice of the waiver before participating?
- Is acceptance properly documented?
- Does the waiver conflict with another customer agreement, consent form or website policy?
- Does the document attempt to waive rights that cannot realistically be waived?
Those questions tend to matter more than whether the waiver is two pages or ten pages long.
When Should a Business Update Its Liability Waiver?
A waiver should be reviewed when the business changes in a meaningful way.
If a company introduces new services, equipment, activities, premises or customer groups, an old waiver may no longer reflect the actual risk.
The same issue arises when businesses expand from in-person services into online services, introduce contractors or start permitting customers to bring third-party vendors onto their premises.
Legal documents should evolve with the business rather than remaining frozen at the date the company launched.
How Falcon Law PC Can Help
Falcon Law PC works with businesses across Ontario on liability waivers, service agreements, Terms of Service, customer contracts and other commercial documentation.
Our approach is to first understand how the business actually operates and then determine what documents are appropriate. In some cases that means a standalone liability waiver. In others, the better solution is a broader customer agreement, informed consent package or online Terms of Service.
If you already have a document and want a lawyer to review it, you can also submit it through our online contract review service.
For broader assistance with customer agreements, corporate risk and ongoing legal matters, learn more about our legal services for entrepreneurs and business owners or contact Falcon Law PC.
This article provides general legal information only and does not constitute legal advice. The enforceability and suitability of a liability waiver will depend on its wording, how it is presented, the nature of the business and the particular circumstances.