Are Online Waivers Legal in Kansas?

This guide is for Kansas racetracks, gyms, rental shops, farms and pumpkin patches, stables, camps and event organizers. It covers whether online waivers are legal in Kansas, how Kansas courts treat liability releases, where the law is thin, and the notice rules in Kansas's agritourism and animal activity laws.

This guide is general information about Kansas law, with links to the statutes and cases, so you and your attorney can look into anything that applies to your business.

Waiver Law in Kansas at a Glance

Are Electronic Signatures Legal in Kansas?

Yes. K.S.A. 16-1607, part of the Kansas Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, provides that "a record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form," and that "if a law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies the law." The federal ESIGN Act (15 U.S.C. 7001) adds the same rule for interstate transactions. An online waiver is a contract like any other; what matters in court is its wording and proof of who accepted it.

Are Liability Waivers Enforceable in Kansas?

Generally, yes, within limits. The Kansas Supreme Court follows "the traditional rule" that competent parties "may make contracts on their own terms and fashion their own remedies where they are not illegal, contrary to public policy, or obtained by fraud, mistake, overreaching, or duress" (Corral v. Rollins Protective Services Co., 240 Kan. 678 (1987)). In Corral the Court enforced a limitation-of-liability clause in a fire alarm contract, noting there was no claim of "gross or wanton negligence or intentional misconduct."

The Kansas Court of Appeals summarized the rule in Anderson v. Union Pacific Railroad, 14 Kan. App. 2d 342 (1990): "In private contracts, exculpatory clauses are upheld unless the agreement is contrary to public policy or is illegal." The court added that such waivers "are strictly construed against the party who drafted" them, and that the totality of the circumstances may be considered. It also described an older Kansas Supreme Court case, Hunter v. American Rentals (1962), where a trailer rental contract disclaiming the rental company's negligence was held void because the trailer lacked a safety hitch required by Kansas statute.

Most of the published Kansas appellate cases involve commercial contracts and leases rather than recreation. For recreational releases, the clearest example we found is federal. In Wolfgang v. Mid-America Motorsports, Inc., 111 F.3d 1515 (10th Cir. 1997), a professional race car driver signed a "Release and Waiver of Liability" before a practice session at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, where he crashed and was trapped in his burning car. Applying Kansas law, the district court held the release valid and enforceable as to his ordinary negligence claims, but not as to his claims for wanton conduct, and the case went to trial only on wantonness. The Tenth Circuit affirmed the judgment.

Gross Negligence, Recklessness and Intentional Harm

Under Kansas law as applied in Wolfgang, wanton conduct requires "a realization of the imminence of danger and a reckless disregard or complete indifference for the probable consequences," and the release did not bar those claims. Kansas courts also have refused to apply an exculpatory clause where the business violated a safety statute (Hunter, as described in Anderson). It's safest to plan on a waiver covering ordinary negligence only.

Waivers for Minors in Kansas

We did not find a Kansas statute or a published Kansas appellate decision deciding whether a parent's pre-injury release waives a child's own negligence claim, so the question is open in Kansas. Courts in other states have split on it. Until a Kansas appellate court rules, a parent's signature is uncertain protection against the child's claim, and it's worth asking a Kansas attorney how your form should handle children.

More Than a Release

A signed agreement does other useful work in Kansas:

• Agritourism notice. For registered agritourism activities, every written contract must contain the statutory warning in clearly readable print, alongside the posted signs (K.S.A. 32-1434). The signed agreement is a natural place for each participant to receive it.
• Assumption of inherent risks. Under K.S.A. 60-4002, participants in domestic animal activities are assuming the inherent risks of those activities, with exceptions in K.S.A. 60-4003. A signed description of those risks is evidence of what the participant was told.
• A record of your warnings and rules. In Anderson, the clause held up because the damage "is precisely the risk" the signer "expressly assumed." A signed acknowledgment is evidence of what each guest agreed to; how much it matters depends on the facts.
• Medical information and consent. Health conditions, emergency contacts, parent consent and photo consent, collected before the activity.

Kansas Activity Laws

• Agritourism. Under the Kansas Agritourism Promotion Act, operators can register with the Secretary of Commerce (K.S.A. 32-1433, free, for five years). At every registered location the operator must post a clearly visible sign, in black letters at least one inch high, and every written contract for a registered agritourism activity must contain the statutory warning (K.S.A. 32-1434). The warning begins: "Under Kansas law, there is no liability for an injury or death of a participant in a registered agritourism activity..." The protection does not cover willful or wanton conduct, or known dangerous conditions or animals that the operator did not disclose (K.S.A. 32-1436).
• Domestic animal activities. K.S.A. 60-4002 provides that, except as provided in K.S.A. 60-4003, a participant "is assuming the inherent risks of domestic animal activities" when taking part in one.

Points to Raise With Your Attorney

WaiverFile doesn't draft waivers, and the wording of your agreement is a job for you and your attorney. Based on the statutes and cases above, these points are worth raising:

• Wording that clearly covers the risks of your activity, since Kansas courts construe releases strictly against the drafter.
• A fair, voluntary agreement. Corral looked for any sign the customer couldn't understand the contract or was at a business disadvantage, and found none.
• Any safety statutes that apply to your equipment or activity, since a waiver didn't excuse a statutory violation in Hunter.
• The agritourism warning and registration, if you run a farm activity.
• How the form handles children, given the open question above.

How WaiverFile Helps Kansas Businesses

Once your agreement is written, WaiverFile makes it easy for every guest to sign it and keeps a complete, easy-to-find record of each one:

• Your agreement, laid out your way. Add the text you and your attorney prepared, including any statutory warning, and use the editor's formatting options (bold, capitals, font size) to lay it out the way it was written.
• A checkbox or initials where you want them. Initial boxes inside the agreement text and required checkboxes for the risks, rules and clauses you choose.
• A record of what was signed. Each signed waiver stores the signature, the answers, and the date and time, plus the IP address and device for online signing. Add a photo of the signer or their ID if you like. Search any waiver in seconds, or download them in bulk as a ZIP file for any date range.
• Sign anywhere. Guests sign ahead by email, text, QR code or your website, during online booking, or on a tablet on-site. The Venue app works offline at farms and rural venues.
• Families on one form. A parent or guardian signs for themselves and adds each child by name and date of birth. Minors are flagged at check-in.
• Health and emergency details. Required questions collect medical information and emergency contacts. HIPAA features add extra protection for health information.

Start with one of our free waiver templates, adapt it for Kansas with your attorney, and set up a free account to start collecting signatures.

Sources and Further Reading

• K.S.A. 16-1607 (Kansas Uniform Electronic Transactions Act)
• ESIGN Act, 15 U.S.C. 7001
• Corral v. Rollins Protective Services Co., 240 Kan. 678, 732 P.2d 1260 (1987)
• Anderson v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 14 Kan. App. 2d 342, 790 P.2d 438 (1990)
• Wolfgang v. Mid-America Motorsports, Inc., 111 F.3d 1515 (10th Cir. 1997)
• K.S.A. 32-1434 (agritourism warning notice)
• K.S.A. 32-1436 (agritourism operator liability)
• K.S.A. 60-4002 (domestic animal activities, assumption of risk)

Published September 3, 2020 · Updated November 4, 2026