Can You Sue an Escape Room for Injury?

Escape rooms offer fun for friends and family, but unfortunately, accidents still happen. If you were injured in an escape room, you likely wonder if you can file a lawsuit against them for damages.

Most escape rooms will make you sign a waiver of liability before allowing you to participate. While these documents work like contracts and can limit your right to sue a business, they are not total shields from immunity. If you are injured because the escape room or its employees acted negligently, a waiver will usually not prevent you from filing a claim. Our team can review your waiver and identify its weak spots. In most cases, public safety concerns demand that these businesses be held accountable since they are offering the public entertainment in exchange for payment. Thus, our lawyers can typically sue an escape room for an accident caused in its facility.

Call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 for a free case evaluation with our NYC personal injury attorneys.

Can I File a Lawsuit if I Am Injured in an Escape Room?

Escape rooms have become increasingly popular over the last few years. As of December 2023, over 1,950 escape rooms were in operation across the United States. These venues offer friends and family the chance to solve puzzles and tasks to escape from rooms that can be themed as zombie outbreaks, bank heists, or any other interesting theme. However, most escape rooms leave people in locked rooms on their own to figure out how to escape. As such, accidents commonly occur either from hazards within the escape room or from other patrons.

If you were injured in an escape room, you likely wonder if you can sue the business for your injuries. You might worry that you lost your right to file a claim if you signed a waiver prepared by the escape room. A waiver of liability offers a business some measure of protection from a lawsuit if you are injured since the activity you are engaging in cannot be made completely safe. An escape room waiver should typically explain the activity you are about to partake in, the potential dangers you could be exposed to, and your understanding that you assume the risks that have been described.

Thus, a signed waiver can prevent you from filing a lawsuit in certain circumstances, but it is not a complete absolution of the escape room’s responsibilities. Escape rooms still have a duty to provide facilities that are as safe as possible and take measures to identify all potential dangers that could result from participating in the activity. As long as you are not the sole cause of your injuries, our Bronx personal injury attorneys can usually overcome a waiver so you can file a lawsuit to recover damages. Fortunately, the law does not particularly favor the use of waivers, so they must meet several criteria to be legally valid.

When You Can Sue an Escape Room for Your Injuries Despite Signing a Waiver

A waiver might make an escape room feel more protected from liability, but many would not hold up to legal scrutiny. For one, a waiver does not provide blanket immunity for an escape room to act negligently or recklessly. Other waivers are held invalid because they are poorly drafted and do not actually tell the person what risks they are assuming. Other waivers are void because they go against public policy. The following are the most common ways our lawyers challenge waivers in injury lawsuits:

Business or Employee Negligence

An escape room generally cannot avoid its duty to keep its premises safe by having you sign a waiver. While the escape room you are playing in might have some dangerous elements, these should be known and accounted for by the business. They must still inspect the premises for changing conditions and unknown hazards left behind by other customers.

For example, the waiver might have stated that the room has uneven surfaces. If you tripped over these, the waiver might be enforceable. However, if you tripped over an unknown hazard that would have been discovered had the escape room done routine inspections, the waiver would likely not apply. Whether an individual employee’s negligence caused the accident or the escape room, we will normally sue both parties.

Intentional or Reckless Conduct

As a waiver will not typically exclude negligent conduct, it will definitely not shield an escape room from a lawsuit for intentional or reckless conduct. Most escape rooms are always looking for a new angle or theme to keep their games popular and exciting. However, some might go too far, creating puzzles in the escape room that are clearly dangerous.

The injuries might have been caused by an employee’s intentional conduct, like chasing and injuring a patron with a dangerous weapon. A waiver will also not cover acts that are grossly negligent or reckless. Whether we use the escape room and its employee or just the employee will depend on the nature of the accident and what the business knew at the time.

Unclear Language in the Waiver

The language in the waiver must also be clear and unambiguous. If the waiver is unclear as to what risks you are accepting, it will likely not be legally binding. An escape room’s waiver should clearly list the activities involved and the dangers contained within. If the terms are ambiguous and leave room to argue interpretations, the waiver cannot be used as a legal contract to release liability.

Lack of Voluntary Assent

A waiver is a contract, so you must willingly and knowingly assent to it. However, it is not uncommon for an escape room waiver to contain fine print. Waivers are also typically presented to customers as take-it-or-leave-it documents that must be signed in order to participate.

As such, waivers are sometimes referred to as “adhesion” contracts. Unlike other types of contracts, they are not entered into on an even basis after negotiating the terms. You either sign the waiver as is or you do not. If you had little choice but to agree to an unreasonable waiver, we can help file a lawsuit and argue for the court to find it unenforceable.

Public Policy Concerns

Some waivers are unenforceable because they violate public policy. Most waivers that seek to limit liability for negligence violate the public policy of protecting individuals from businesses that prioritize profit over safety. Whether your escape room waiver violates public policy will depend on how it is structured.

Most commercial businesses must have highly specific waivers that only limit liability in particular instances. Because escape rooms are open to the public, they cannot limit their responsibilities to the public’s safety by having you sign a waiver.

Our Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help Fight Your Escape Room Waiver Today

Call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 to receive a free case review with our Flatbush, NY personal injury lawyers.