I’m loathe to wade into this further, but since people are flipping out about this, here’s my perspective, as someone she practices law in NY

THREAD https://twitter.com/annak_4ever/status/1292406962114777088

1. In the US signing liability waivers is extremely common, for all kinds of things including sports, jobs, riding on a roller coaster, going to a swimming pool etc. it’s not unusual for someone to have to agree to assume risk in return for being allowed to participate.

2. It is likely that tennis players have been signing these kinds of waivers in the past- not just for the USO and probably not just for tourneys in the US.

3. So while Covid-specific waivers are new, waivers generally are not. I suspect that most US businesses are now using Covid-specific waivers for contractors that they hire.

4. Terms like the waiver being enforceable “forever” and including waiving the right to sue for all consequences of participating including death are typical. That isn’t even Covid- specific.

5. After all what would be the point of waiving the right to sue temporarily if the person can turn around and sue 2 years later? A waiver is generally forever and generally includes all consequences- yes, including death.

6. Keep in mind that in NY the state, one *cannot* waive certain rights- for example the right to sue for gross negligence or intentional misconduct. So USTA’s inclusion of a waiver for ordinary “negligence” doesn’t include those categories of conduct.

7. Which means that USTA could still be held accountable for some of its actions if they are particularly egregious- I’m making this up, but, for example: if it failed to test everyone before the tournament. (Hard to know what would be gross v ordinary negligence)

8. Asking them to go to arbitration rather than court is also pretty typical, as litigation is expensive, and that’s a way to keep costs down. Arbtitration clauses are extremely common in US.

9. Covid is new so I’m sure there will be a lot of Covid-related litigation in the US which will set precedents. But it’s par for the course for USTA to try to limit its liability-which could quickly run into the hundreds of millions & who knows if they have adequate insurance.

10. The one thing that’s unusual here and I don’t typically see is the prohibition on joining a class action suit (to be honest I don’t know whether that restriction would hold up in court)

END: So, in brief, this waiver is fairly typical, signing waivers is probably something the players routinely do already, and they are not giving up *all* rights to sue - hard to know how much of their rights they are foregoing because pandemic precedents are few to go by.