Kajukenbo Cafe

I would be interested in see the waivers that each of the schools use for new students to sign when they join a class.  Of the schools out there, who has had their waiver looked at by an attorney?  How many of you do not use an injury/death etc. waiver?

Professor Joe Shuras is absolutely correct in saying that no matter how good the waiver is, it cannot cover everything.

In my opinion on legal and public policy, it shouldn't! There are certain rights and protections a person should not be able to waive. Two of these that I will discuss below are gross negligence and intentional acts of harm.

According to Black's Law Dictionary, gross negligence is "the intentional failure to perform a manifest duty in reckless disregard of the consequences as affecting the life or property of another." An example of this could be when a dojo owner has a dangerous condition like a faulty furnace and knows about the condition but does nothing to fix it. One day this faulty furnace spews out so much carbon monoxide that it ends up killing a couple of students and making others very sick.

Intentional acts of harm are self explanatory. This can be an instructor who is angry with a student and decides to teach him a lesson by hurting him. The instructor ends up breaking the student's arm.

When someone suffers a lost, somebody has to pay. In the two instances above, legal and public policy has decided that it shouldn't be the student's fault even if a waiver was signed.

To Andrew:  Is this something you feel you can share (copy of the waiver)?

And since you are a lawyer -  Can instructors be held responsible if one student causes an injury to another within the confines of the school?

Can instructors be held responsible if one student causes an injury to another within the confines of the school?

Yes and no! With every legal question there is a depends.

Was the one student a child of the instructor? Did the instructor tell the one student to hurt another student? Was the student on drugs and the instructor knew about it? Does the student have a mental condition that the instructor knows about? Did the instructor sell them defective equipment? Did the instructor improperly show they how to use the equipment? Did the instructor tell the students not to use equipment when he should have? Did the instructor fail to provide adequate supervision?

If the answer is yes, then it's possible that the instructor will be held responsible. Also keep in mind that these are just a few of the possibilities. -Andrew

Initially I was planning to write a book for martial artists with lots of legal tips and my famous waiver and make a zillion dollars off of it but then I realized I was acting like the jerks who control the RIAA and shut down Napster. Hey, that would be another good topic. More on that later!

But seriously, I am inspired by the hard work and selflessness of wonderful folks that I met on the Kaju Café. This includes Sihing Rob Poelking, Professors Joe Shuras and Gerry Scott, Sigung Brian Baxter and John Bishop, and MANY others. Not only did these folks help me, but they also helped others. It only makes it right if little ol’ me provides a gift in kind.

Thus I’m going to email Rob the information and we’ll see what we can work out about making a fill-in-the-blanks web-based printable document for others.

Mahalo, Andrew

Part 1 of Andrew's waiver:


The Martial Arts classes at Maximus Fitness and Wellness and Crestview Community Center provided by Hokkien Martial Arts are designed to provide skills in self defense and enhance self-confidence while having fun. The Chinese Kempo Karate and Modern Arnis classes will cover a broad range of martial arts and self defense techniques taken from Kajukenbo, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Judo/Jujitsu, Boxing, Arnis/Escrima, and other fighting systems. The typical class includes children, teenagers, and adults, all advancing in skills at their own rate and level. Classes will involve training in hand and foot strikes, brick breaking, sparring, self defense techniques and forms so that students may advance in belt ranking. In addition, classes train students for real-life confrontation and assault situations so they may defend themselves and their family. Typically, students work with each other or an instructor in such activities as take-downs, joint-locks, Judo/Jujitsu throws, restraints, choke holds, escape techniques from choke holds and ground restraints, various forms of strikes, sparring and both fighting with and defending against various weapons.

Part 2 of Andrew's Waiver:

Since the instructors at Maximus Fitness and Wellness and Crestview Community Center and from Hokkien Martial Arts are not in the business or profession of training martial artists, it is not practical for them to purchase liability insurance to protect against any claims against them if anyone in the class is injured. Therefore, all instructors can only teach the class on the condition that everyone in the class agrees that each class participant assumes the risk of any injuries, and will not make any claims against the instructors if they are hurt.