Are Online Waivers Legal in West Virginia?

This guide is for West Virginia owners of rafting outfitters, ski areas, stables, zip lines, climbing gyms, camps, tours and other activity businesses. West Virginia courts enforce clear releases for recreation, and several of the state's activity statutes make a signed agreement part of the picture. We cover whether an online waiver counts as signed, how courts treat releases, where the activity statutes come in, what is known about parents signing for children, and what else a signed agreement does for you.

This guide is general information about West Virginia 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 West Virginia at a Glance

Are Electronic Signatures Legal in West Virginia?

Yes. West Virginia adopted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act in Chapter 39A, Article 1 of its Code. Section 39A-1-7 says 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) says the same for interstate transactions. A waiver signed on a phone, computer or tablet counts as signed.

Are Liability Waivers Enforceable in West Virginia?

The leading case is Murphy v. North American River Runners, Inc., 186 W. Va. 310, 412 S.E.2d 504 (1991), a whitewater rafting injury on the New River. The Supreme Court of Appeals said that, "in the absence of an applicable safety statute," a person who expressly agrees to accept the risk of harm from the defendant's negligent or reckless conduct may not recover, "unless the agreement is invalid as contrary to public policy."

On wording, Murphy is fairly practical. Language releasing a defendant from "all liability for any future loss or damage" can be enough to waive an ordinary negligence claim even without the words "negligence" or "negligent acts or omissions." The court said these "magic words" are not essential "if the contract as a whole and the circumstances at the time of its execution indicate that both parties intended that waiver."

A ski case shows a release working alongside a statute. In Addis v. Snowshoe Mountain, Inc., No. 12-1537 (W. Va. Nov. 22, 2013), a memorandum decision, an experienced skier was hurt after slipping on ice on a double black diamond trail. He had signed a season pass agreement accepting the inherent risks of skiing and releasing the resort from liability "which results in any way from negligence." The court affirmed summary judgment for the resort under the Skiing Responsibility Act, and rejected the argument that Murphy defeated the release because there was no evidence the resort had violated its statutory duties.

The limits:

• Safety statutes. Murphy held that an agreement to assume the risk of a defendant's violation of a safety statute "will not be enforced," because that obligation "is owed to the public at large and is not within the power of any private individual to waive." The Whitewater Responsibility Act requires guides to "conform to the standard of care expected of members of their profession," so the release in Murphy was unenforceable to the extent it tried to excuse a guide's failure to meet that standard.
• Public service. Following the California Tunkl factors, a release will not be enforced in favor of a provider of a "public service." In Kyriazis v. University of West Virginia, 192 W. Va. 60, 450 S.E.2d 649 (1994), the court held that a state university providing club rugby to its students was performing a public service with a decisive bargaining advantage, and found the release void. The court noted that commercial whitewater outfitting, by contrast, had not been treated as a public service.
• Reckless and intentional conduct. See the next section.

Gross Negligence and Recklessness

Murphy held that a general clause releasing "all liability" will not be read to include "intentional or reckless misconduct or gross negligence, unless the circumstances clearly indicate that such was the plaintiff's intention." The court added that releases for inherently hazardous recreation usually will be unenforceable when they involve "a violation of statutory safety standards or intentional or reckless misconduct or gross negligence." Because the complaint alleged reckless conduct by the guide, the case went back for trial.

Waivers for Minors in West Virginia

We did not find a West Virginia Supreme Court decision on whether a parent can release a child's future negligence claims, so the question is unsettled. The closest case is federal: in Johnson v. New River Scenic Whitewater Tours, Inc., 313 F. Supp. 2d 621 (S.D. W. Va. 2004), a girl drowned on a rafting trip after a church youth leader, not her parent, signed the outfitter's release and indemnity forms. The court held that the leader had no authority to sign for the mother. It also held, relying on Murphy, that "a parent may not indemnify a third party against the parent's minor child for liability for conduct that violates a safety statute such as the Whitewater Responsibility Act." The court said it was not deciding whether a parental indemnity agreement can ever be enforced.

Two takeaways: the signature that matters is an actual parent's or legal guardian's, and a parent's release can't be counted on to cover a child's claims. A clear risk explanation and the activity statutes below may still help.

West Virginia Activity Laws

• Whitewater Responsibility Act (W. Va. Code 20-3B). Licensed outfitters and guides are liable only for injuries caused by failing to meet their statutory and regulatory duties (20-3B-5). Those duties include the professional standard of care, which a release cannot waive under Murphy.
• Skiing Responsibility Act (20-3A). Sets ski area operator duties such as trail difficulty signs, closed-trail notices and posted notices about the act (20-3A-3), and says each skier "expressly assumes the risk of and legal responsibility for" injuries from listed conditions such as variations in terrain and snow or ice (20-3A-5, as quoted in Addis).
• Equestrian Activities Responsibility Act (20-4). A "horseman" must "prepare and present to each participant or prospective participant, for his or her inspection and signature, a statement which clearly and concisely explains the liability limitations, restrictions and responsibilities" of the act (20-4-3). Horsemen stay liable for breaching their statutory duties and for gross negligence, willful and wanton conduct or intentional injury (20-4-5).
• Motorsport Responsibility Act (20-19). Operators must keep records, for at least three years, of "participant acknowledgement of risks and duties" along with insurance, inspection and maintenance records (20-19-3).
• ATV Responsibility Act (20-15) covers the Hatfield-McCoy trail system and its authorized outfitters.

More Than a Release

In West Virginia, a signed agreement does work that goes beyond the release:

• The equine statement. The Equestrian Activities Responsibility Act requires a horseman to present each participant a statement of the act's limits for inspection and signature, so the signed form is part of meeting the act.
• Motorsport records. Operators must keep records of each participant's acknowledgment of risks and duties for at least three years.
• A record of your warnings and rules. A form that describes the activity's risks and your rules, with each one acknowledged, is evidence of what each guest was told. In Addis, the signed agreement accepting skiing's inherent risks sat alongside the statute's own allocation of those risks to the skier. How much a record matters depends on the facts.
• Medical information and consent. Health conditions, swimming ability, emergency contacts and consent to treatment, collected before the trip.

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. Since West Virginia's activity statutes vary, these are points worth raising:

• Intent. Murphy read the release as a whole, along with the circumstances when it was signed, to see whether both sides meant to waive negligence claims.
• What a release can't reach. Murphy put safety-statute violations, recklessness and gross negligence outside a general release.
• Who signs for a minor. In Johnson, a church youth leader's signature didn't count because the leader had no authority to sign for the parent.
• Statutory forms. The equine act calls for a signed statement and the motorsport act for records of risk acknowledgments.
• The record. Who signed, when, and which version of the text they agreed to.

How WaiverFile Helps West Virginia 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 and any statutory statement you and your attorney prepared, and use the editor's formatting options (bold, capitals, font size) to lay it out the way it was written. The wording and format are up to you.
• A checkbox or initials where you want them. Add initial boxes inside the agreement text and required checkboxes for the risks, rules and notices you choose, so each one has its own acknowledgment.
• 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. An optional photo of each signer or their ID helps show who actually signed.
• Families on one form. A parent or guardian signs for themselves and adds each child by name and date of birth, and minors are flagged at check-in.
• Medical questions. Required questions capture health conditions and emergency contacts. HIPAA features add extra protection for health information.
• Sign anywhere. Guests sign ahead by email, text, QR code or your website, or on a tablet on-site, and the Venue app works offline at a put-in or trailhead with weak signal. Waivers are built into online booking, so every guest on a group trip can sign while booking and staff see each guest's status at check-in.
• Records you can produce. Search any waiver in seconds, send guests an email copy, or download signed waivers in bulk as a ZIP file for any date range, which is handy for keeping multi-year records.

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

Sources and Further Reading

• W. Va. Code 39A-1-7 (UETA, legal recognition of electronic signatures)
• Federal ESIGN Act, 15 U.S.C. 7001
• Murphy v. North American River Runners, Inc., 186 W. Va. 310, 412 S.E.2d 504 (1991)
• Addis v. Snowshoe Mountain, Inc., No. 12-1537 (W. Va. Nov. 22, 2013) (memorandum decision)
• Kyriazis v. University of West Virginia, 192 W. Va. 60, 450 S.E.2d 649 (1994)
• Johnson v. New River Scenic Whitewater Tours, Inc., 313 F. Supp. 2d 621 (S.D. W. Va. 2004)
• W. Va. Code 20-3B-3 (Whitewater Responsibility Act, duties)
• W. Va. Code 20-3B-5 (Whitewater Responsibility Act, liability)
• W. Va. Code 20-3A-3 (Skiing Responsibility Act, operator duties)
• W. Va. Code 20-4-3 (Equestrian Activities Responsibility Act, signed statement)
• W. Va. Code 20-4-5 (Equestrian Activities Responsibility Act, liability)
• W. Va. Code 20-19-3 (Motorsport Responsibility Act, operator duties and records)

Published November 4, 2026