You’ve set up an awesome, fun, and extremely dangerous event. You want everyone you know to participate, but you don’t want to shoulder this massive liability (smart thinkin’!)–enter the waiver form.
A waiver is a document that illustrates an individual’s surrender of particular rights. Similar to a disclaimer, waivers are a complex document and they shouldn’t be taken lightly. Talk to your lawyer when drafting a waiver. We’re not lawyers so don’t assume any of our examples here represents legal advice in any shape or form. Got it? Good. Let’s get to building a form then, eh?
When signing a waiver, it’s important to include a copy for your terms and the rights that the individual is surrendering when they sign. Generally, we would suggest using a Section Break field for this. Section Break fields let you include text or HTML without adding an extra input field to your form. An unfortunate side-effect of using a Section Break on a waiver form is that the text you include won’t be sent along to your user, and won’t be included in the Notifications you receive.
To make sure you and your users get a copy of the waiver for both of your records, we suggest using our CSS keyword cloak. Cloak is and often misunderstood CSS Keyword. “Hide an input field?! Why would I want to do that on a form, y’all crazy”.
Well, sometimes yes. We’re going to use the CSS Keyword cloak to hide the input field for a regular old Single-Line-Text field. First, paste all that text you had in your Section Break over in the Field Label of a Single Line Text field. Once that’s done, add the CSS Layout Keyword cloak.
Field labels will always appear within the Notification emails, as long as that field’s input field contains data. To ensure it always contains data, add a bit of pre-defined text to that single line text field to ensure it shows up in every email. Since that field is hidden, your users won’t be able to see or change it. We usually use something like [placeholder] so it’s easy to identify. Another option is to simply include a period as the pre-defined value.
This will give you a section of static text without an input box, kinda like our Section Break. The text will be included in Notification emails, as well as within the Entry Manager.
To include a copy of that waiver for your users, click on the Form Settings tab, and enable your Confirmation Email. When customizing that email, check the Include copy of form data checkbox. Your customer will then receive a copy of the waiver and all of its juicy legal pitfalls.
That’s the gist of how to create a waiver form in Wufoo! Here’s the example we just created for your reference too.
Stay safe out there, form fans and see you next time.
Questions for Cody? You know where to go.
Comments
Hi Cody! I’m wondering why you wouldn’t just use that input field you cloaked (minus the cloaking, of course) for the person’s signature? If you put the waiver and at the end of it put your “I, the undersigned…”, and then they would type their name in the field?
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Denise.Seems kind of clunky to me!
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Karl.How legal are these waiver forms? Would they stand up in court?
Cody, this form is….AWESOME! You’ve helped me solve a major issue that we were using hard copy forms to handle. Now I can give those hard copy forms back to the 1980s where they belong.
I do have one technical question: If a user fails to check the checkbox acknowledging that they agree, how can we stop the form from being submitted when they click on submit? I know how to change the message they receive, but my inbox still receives the form anyway. Is there a rule that I can write to prevent unacknowledged submittals?
Posted June 28th, 2016 by RJ Richards.@Karl I hear you, it’s not 100% ideal, but it is one way to get those terms within the email notifications! It would be up to the courts to decide how binding these would be, we suggest talking with your lawyer to see whether they fit your needs in terms of a binding document.
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Cody Curry.If you don’t mind having those terms at the end of your form, that would work great!
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Cody Curry.@RJ If you make that checkbox required, they won’t be able to submit the form unless they check that box. Notifications are only sent when a form is submitted, so you shouldn’t see a notification until they submit successfully (unless your form is more than one page).
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Cody Curry.Hi, Is there an options for an electronic signature?
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Tiffany.In your example the text extends the length of the form width. However, when I created this, the text only extends the length of the field box. How do I get my text to extend the width of the entire form
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Aaron.I have the same problem as Aaron. The receipt looks very awkward with the text only being the size of the field and not the size of the form. It takes up way to many lines the way it is. Help….
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Cheryl.@Cheryl Sorry you’re having trouble with this! Depending on the other content of your form, this can definitely happen. Please write us using our contact form, and we can take a closer look to see if we can figure out what’s up!
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Cody Curry.@Tiffany While we don’t have a built-in electronic signature feature, a lot of folks find this option fits their needs. We do have an integration with Doc Verify as well!
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Cody Curry.I agree Waiver is the dangerous form and I recently I drafted my terms using my lawyer. It automatically sends copies to both users and me.
Posted June 28th, 2016 by Latonya.