What are liability 'disclaimers' and 'waivers'?
Disclaimers and waivers are an attempt by many manufacturers of products to disclaim liability for certain injuries that may occur as a result of the use of the product. Some waivers are enforceable, for example, if someone buys a lawn mower and ignores the instructions to keep their foot away from the blades and they cut their feet off, well that waiver may be deemed enforceable if it was a reasonable and adequate warning and it was not uncommon for that particular product, or not deemed unsafe for that particular product to cut toes off if the instructions hadn't been followed. But if the instructions had been followed, it would be almost impossible for the product to cause harm. In that situation, the disclaimer of liability and the waiver of liability may be deemed enforceable. But other situations such as when someone releases something into a string of commerce, which causes extreme harm to someone and it's incapable of being made safe, there is no way that that disclaimer of liability or waiver of liability will be deemed enforceable. And in fact courts, especially in California, don't look kindly upon disclaimers of liability because it basically is saying that no matter how reasonable someone was, they can still harm people. And courts don't like that because courts say you have to be reasonable period.
