Looking for free legal advice on a non-aviation matter.

[gismo]

I'm preparing to offer my parent's lake home in Michgan for weekly rentals this summer. I've installed a mooring for the renters to use if they bring a boat and want to require they sign a waiver indicating that said use is at their own risk. Can anyone suggest the appropriate language for a waiver like this.

The anchor consists of more than 250 lbs of steel with steel legs stuck into the hard lake bottom and attached to some heavy chain so it's unlikely it will get dragged but I don't want to get sued if someone's boat gets blown onto the shore in a bad storm.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I don't want to get sued

I think you mean "I don't want to lose a lawsuit." Obviously no amount of signed papers prevents attempts at lawsuits. What you want is some imposing barriers. Check to see what Nolo Press has published on rentals.

 

[Jim Logajan]

As my old lawyer buddy said, "Free legal advice is worth exactly what you paid for it."

People routinely engage in contracts of significant value and risk without consulting an attorney on every bloody transaction. And this is as it should be. (Examples: how many people consult a lawyer every time they buy a car? When they sell a car? When they go grocery shopping? When they buy or sell all those dangerous tools in their garage?)

When you go to a lawyer in a situation as the OP described the most common thing you'll get is a bill and maybe some boilerplate contract that the lawyer pulled out of a filing cabinet that covers your situation close enough for litigation purposes. They'll fill in the blanks and send you on your way. Bah, I say. Boilerplate contracts are not that hard to find and use for any reasonably intelligent and house-broken person.