Difference between a release and a waiver
August 12th, 2009 by zipetaa
I translated some legal agreement several day ago. It is about an accident in a hospital resulting in the death of AAA. In this agreement, it is provided that AAA’s parents would waive (the term I used) all claims they may have against the Hospital and something like that, but my boss told me yesterday that “release” should be used in this case. I referred to certain dictionaries, but found nothing that can explain their difference.
Can the term “waive” be used in this case? Is there any difference between a waiver and a release?
Many thanks
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I think this is a legal issue (which term should be used for which situations), so only lawyers could answer this properly, but here is my own sense of the difference.
I think the difference becomes clearer if you use “the right”. “Release the right” would means that you are handing over your right to someone else. For instance, if you sign a release before appearing in front of a camera, you are not only giving up your right, but also transferring the right to the photographer. The photographer has the right to use your image.
“Waive the right” would simply mean that you are giving up the right, but not transferring it, like waiving the right to sue someone. (In this case, it’s not transferable anyway.)
But “release” might also be appropriate for situations that do not involve transferring of rights. If so, the two terms are interchangeable. But again, I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know how these terms are used in the legal world. In the end, that’s what matters.
I agree that this is probably a legal issue, but I would use ”waive”. ”Release” implies that they are giving the rights to the hospital or another entity, while ”waive” implies that they are forfeiting the rights. It seems to me like the word ”release” may be used to confuse the person signing the document.
I’m not a lawyer either, but my gut feeling on this one is that the AAA’s family would sign a waiver, which would release the hospital from any liability.
To make matters more confusing, AAA’s parents could sign a release, waiving their right to take legal action.
Agreed. This is not a grammar issue. Grammatically, “waive” works fine. In fact, I prefer it to “release.” I’m sorry to have published this comment without adding content. :)
I’m no lawyer either, but several sources define them similarly. In at least one case (irrelevant to your example), there may be a difference. Permission to deviate from some rule may also be referred to as a waiver. I don’t think such permission would normally be referred to as a release. Release literally means to let go. Waive is more like “put aside”.
I’m curious. If you sign a release before appearing in front of a camera, are you releasing your rights to the image or are you actually releasing the producer, photographer, etc. from their responsibility to compensate you for the use of the image? I wonder if you don’t often see “…release my rights to…”, but are more likely to see “…release [insert name here] from…” How are these documents usually worded?
I looked at a couple of sample release forms for photographers I found on the Web, and most seem to give permission to take a photo, and also allow for the use, duplication and/or distribute the photo without a fee being imposed by the person whose image or photograph is used.
Here’s a link to one of the samples:
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/aksca/pdf/photo_release_form_sample.pdf
Very interesting, anon. You may be right. Just as you suspected, Emil’s document says: “I waive the right…”, not “I release the right…” Later on, it says: “I…release…the Department of Labor from all claims…”, also consistent wth your comments.
As indicated by zipetaa’s original question, both terms pertain to whether one party communicates to the other that he will not pursue a potential claim. Though not specifically distinct (their definitions in the well-regonized “Black’s Law Dictionary” largely overlap), I believe that in practice they are used in different situations.
My understanding is that a waiver is used where there exists a legally recognizable basis for one person to assert a claim against another, but one has not yet exercised his power to make the claim and seeks to communicate to the other that one will not in the future exercise that power. On the other hand, a release is used where one has already exercised one’s power to make the claim, but seeks to liberate the other from the claim already asserted.
Surely this doesn’t cover the entire scope of the topic, but hopefully sheds some light on the distinction.