The story so far:
- brought my kids to a temporary indoor playground in a mall;
- had to fill in an online waiver form before unleashing my brood;
- actually bothered to read the legalese; and
- am now letting my nerd flag fly.

--

Third, the terms and conditions contained an indemnity / waiver clause.

"I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE CAREFULLY READ THIS WAIVER AND RELEASE AND FULLY UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS A RELEASE OF ALL LIABILITY AND WAIVER OF ANY RIGHT THAT I MAY HAVE ON BEHALF OF MYSELF AND/OR MY CHILD/WARD TO BRING LEGAL ACTION OR ASSERT A CLAIM FOR DEATH, INJURY OR LOSS OF ANY KIND AGAINST [organiser]. SHOULD ANY CLAIM BE MADE, I UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT I WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ATTORNEY’S FEES AND DEFENSE COSTS INCURRED BY [organiser] IN CONNECTION WITH OR IN DEFENSE OF THAT CLAIM.²

I have read the above, considered its effects, understand its content, and agree, on behalf of myself and or child/ward, to the terms stated above. This agreement specifically contains an indemnity agreement whereby I agree to reimburse the Releasees against any damages (including attorney’s fees and costs) incurred as a result of any lawsuit, claim, or action brought by myself, my child/ward, or any other party, related in any way to me or my child’s/ward's use of [venue]..."

--

Let's put aside, for a second, whether these clauses are enforceable or not.

I'm actually more interested in the hidden insights we can glean from them.

There are a couple of hints that suggest that these clauses were drafted outside of Singapore, or were drafted for use outside of Singapore:

1️⃣ The first clause is CAPITALISED IN ITS ENTIRETY. This is not conventional for Singaporean contracts. But it is fairly commonplace in contracts drafted in or for use in the United States - perhaps in an attempt to comply with the requirement in the Uniform Commercial Code for certain text to be "conspicuous".³

2️⃣ The clauses refer to "attorney's fees". But in Singapore, lawyers are referred to as "advocates and solicitors", and not attorneys. The jurisdictions in which lawyers are referred to as "attorneys" include South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and - you guessed it - the United States.

Now, at this point, some of you are probably wondering:

"Ok but what's the big deal? Why are you making a mountain out of a molehill? After all, English is English, isn't it?⁴ Why can't we use a contract drafted overseas in Singapore?⁵ Are you some kind of snob?⁶"

Well, you can use a contract drafted for use in the United States in Singapore.

That is, if you're prepared for unexpected consequences.

Stay tuned.

--

In part 4, we'll discuss what learning points we can extract from these random word salad terms and conditions, in respect of... complex cross-border commercial disputes.⁷