Are Online Waivers Legal in New Brunswick?

For New Brunswick trampoline parks, climbing gyms, tour and paddling outfitters, camps, gyms and rental shops, a signed agreement does several jobs: it can release claims by adult participants under the Supreme Court of Canada's approach to waivers, it records the risks and rules each guest agreed to, and it collects medical details before anyone takes part. This guide covers e-signatures, how waivers are treated in New Brunswick, what else a signed agreement does, and where the law on minors stands.

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

Waiver Law in New Brunswick at a Glance

Are Electronic Signatures Legal in New Brunswick?

Yes. The Electronic Transactions Act says information "shall not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely on the ground that the information is electronic" (s. 7), and that a legal requirement for a signature "is satisfied by an electronic signature" (s. 11). An electronic signature can be an electronic image of a handwritten signature or a typed name that the person clearly provides as their signature. The Act doesn't force anyone to use electronic documents (s. 4), so customers who want paper can still have it.

Are Liability Waivers Enforceable in New Brunswick?

New Brunswick is a common-law province, and its courts apply the waiver principles set by the Supreme Court of Canada:

• Waivers can work. In Dyck v. Manitoba Snowmobile Association, [1985] 1 SCR 589, the Court upheld a signed race entry form that released the organizer from liability, including for negligence, and barred an injured racer's claim.
• The three-step test. In Tercon Contractors v. British Columbia, 2010 SCC 4, the Court set the framework for exclusion clauses: (1) does the clause, properly interpreted, apply to what happened; (2) was it unconscionable when the contract was made; and (3) should the court still refuse to enforce it because of an overriding public policy. The burden is on the person trying to avoid the clause.
• Where waivers fail. In Crocker v. Sundance Northwest Resorts, [1988] 1 SCR 1186, the resort could not rely on a waiver in a combined entry and waiver form because no attempt was made to draw it to the participant's attention, he had not read it and didn't know it existed.

We did not find a published New Brunswick decision that finally decided whether an adult's recreational waiver was enforceable, so these Supreme Court cases are the best guide.

Gross Negligence and Intentional Harm

We did not find a New Brunswick decision on whether a waiver can cover gross negligence or deliberate harm. Under the third Tercon step, a court can decline to enforce a valid clause for overriding public policy reasons; the Supreme Court gave conduct approaching serious criminality or egregious fraud as examples. Don't count on a waiver to cover anything beyond ordinary negligence.

More Than a Release

A signed agreement does other work in New Brunswick beyond the release itself:

• It's part of showing reasonable care. Section 2 of the Law Reform Act says "the law of occupier's liability is abolished," and the Court of Appeal has confirmed that premises claims are governed by the ordinary rules of negligence (Hatty v. Reid, 2005 NBCA 5, as described by the Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan). The question for a facility is whether it took reasonable care in the circumstances, and your warnings, rules and safety procedures, recorded in a signed agreement, bear on that.
• It records the risks the guest accepted. A signed description of your activity's risks is evidence of what the guest was told; how much it matters depends on the facts.
• It bears on shared fault. Under the Contributory Negligence Act, liability is divided in proportion to each person's fault (s. 1). A guest's agreement to your rules and staff instructions is part of that picture if they were broken.
• It collects what you need. Health conditions, emergency contacts, consent to first aid, and photo consent, before anyone takes part.

Waivers for Minors in New Brunswick

For families, the parent's form is where a parent or guardian approves the child's participation, agrees to your rules, and gives you medical information and emergency contacts. It's also a record that the risks were explained to the adult responsible for the child.

Whether it also releases the child's own claim hasn't been decided. The age of majority in New Brunswick is 19 (Age of Majority Act, s. 1). In Dewitt v. Strang, 2016 NBCA 63, a 15-year-old was left paraplegic after a motocross race. He and his father had both signed a "Minor Participant Waiver," and the plaintiff asked the court to rule before trial that the waiver could not bar his claim. The Court of Appeal upheld the motion judge's refusal to decide: "A court might conclude that a waiver signed by a minor and by a parent is never, as a matter of law, binding on the minor... He may, or he may not be right." The question was left for trial on the full evidence, and we found no later ruling. A 2019 review by MLT Aikins describes the issue as unresolved in most common-law provinces.

Points to Raise With Your Lawyer

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

• A clear title that tells people they are giving up legal rights, not just registering.
• Whether the wording covers the claims you mean it to cover. The entry form upheld in Dyck named negligence.
• How the waiver is brought to each guest's attention, with a real chance to read before the activity. The court in Crocker faulted a waiver no one pointed out.
• A plain description of your activity's specific risks and rules.
• How the form handles participants under 19, including who signs and how each child's age is recorded, since Dewitt left the facts at signing to be weighed at trial.

How WaiverFile Helps New Brunswick 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 agreement text you and your lawyer prepared, 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. Add initial boxes inside the agreement text and required checkboxes for the rules, risks and clauses you choose, so each one has its own acknowledgment.
• Time to read. Guests sign ahead from their own phone or computer by email, text, QR code or your website, instead of rushing at the counter. Waivers are built into online booking, so you see each guest's status at check-in.
• A record of what was signed. Each signed form stores the signature, the answers, and the date and time, plus the IP address and device for online signing. Add a photo of each signer or their ID if you like.
• Medical questions. Required questions capture health conditions and emergency contacts. HIPAA features add extra protection for health information. (HIPAA is a US law. In New Brunswick, private businesses' handling of personal information falls under the federal PIPEDA.)
• Families on one form. A parent adds each child by name and date of birth, and minors are flagged at check-in.
• English and French. WaiverFile supports multiple languages, so you can offer both versions of your agreement.
• Sign anywhere, find anything. Use a tablet kiosk on site, even offline in the Venue app. Search any waiver in seconds, or download them in bulk as a ZIP file for any date range.

Start with one of our free waiver templates, review it with your lawyer, and set up a free account to start collecting signatures.

Sources and Further Reading

• Electronic Transactions Act, RSNB 2011, c 145
• Law Reform Act, RSNB 2011, c 184, s. 2 (occupiers' liability abolished)
• Contributory Negligence Act, RSNB 2011, c 131 (s. 1)
• Age of Majority Act, RSNB 2011, c 103
• Dewitt v. Strang et al., 2016 NBCA 63
• Tercon Contractors Ltd. v. British Columbia (Transportation and Highways), 2010 SCC 4, [2010] 1 SCR 69
• Crocker v. Sundance Northwest Resorts Ltd., [1988] 1 SCR 1186
• Dyck v. Manitoba Snowmobile Association, [1985] 1 SCR 589
• Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan, Reform of Occupiers' Liability Law in Saskatchewan: Consultation Report (2023) (discusses New Brunswick's abolition and Hatty v. Reid, 2005 NBCA 5)
• MLT Aikins, "Minors: The Special Case of Liability Waivers" (2019)
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: Summary of privacy laws in Canada

Published November 4, 2026