Bill
H 81
The bill shields recreation clubs and unpaid volunteers from most liability for injuries in club activities, with limited exceptions for gross negligence, equipment faults, and int
Status and effective date
- Enacted and signed by the Governor (Session Law Chapter 214). Delivered to Governor March 27, 2025; signed March 31, 2025. Effective date (emergency): July 1, 2025.
- Creates new Idaho Code § 36-1605 (Chapter 16, Title 36).
Purpose
- To encourage formation of recreation clubs and participation in club-organized outdoor and recreational activities by limiting civil liability for clubs and their unpaid members/volunteers for injuries or death that occur during recreation activities, while preserving claims for certain serious misconduct.
Key definitions (selected)
- "Recreation club": an unincorporated association (ch. 27, Title 30) or nonprofit corporation (ch. 30, Title 30) whose purposes include coordinating, facilitating, promoting, supporting, or organizing recreation activities.
- "Club member": any member, officer, director, or volunteer of a recreation club who receives no wage for services to the club (i.e., unpaid).
- "Participant": any person (novice to professional) who engages in a recreation activity coordinated, facilitated, organized, promoted, or supported by a recreation club.
- "Recreation activity": broad list including hunting, fishing, boating, rafting, camping, hiking, flying aircraft, bicycling, motorcycling, snowmobiling, operating off‑highway vehicles, winter sports, nature observation, and related travel. Membership dues and donations are explicitly not considered a charge or fee for an activity.
Primary substantive provisions
- Broad liability shield: Except as provided in the exceptions below, a recreation club and its club members are not liable for injury or death of a participant engaged in a recreation activity, and participants (or their representatives/survivors) may not maintain actions against clubs or club members for such injury or death.
- Assumption of risk: A recreation club and club members owe no duty to eliminate, alter, control, or lessen risks inherent to recreation activities; they owe no duty to make the activity safe or to warn of related dangers. Participants “assume all risks inherent” in the activity.
Exceptions — where liability remains
- Injury or death proximately caused by equipment provided by the club or a club member.
- Acts or omissions by a club member constituting gross negligence or willful and wanton disregard for safety, or intentional injury.
- A club member’s failure to exercise ordinary care in the member’s own participation where that failure is the direct and proximate cause of injury or death (mere organizational role alone is not per se negligence).
- Liability under products liability laws.
- Liability that falls under specified chapters of Title 6 (chapters 9, 11, 12, 18, 27, 29, or 33).
Waivers
- Participants may prospectively waive negligence claims by express written consent; the statute declares written waivers enforceable to the same degree as similar waivers for other activities.
Fiscal impact
- Fiscal note reports no expected increase/decrease in state or local revenue or expenditures; no fiscal impact.
Who is affected / likely impact
- Recreation clubs (unincorporated associations and nonprofits focused on recreation), unpaid officers/volunteers, and participants in club-organized activities throughout Idaho.
- Likely reduces exposure to routine negligence suits against clubs and unpaid volunteers, while retaining remedies for gross negligence, intentional harms, defective products, equipment-provision injuries, and certain statutory liabilities.
Legislative history (highlights)
- Introduced Jan 30, 2025; reported from committee and amended in the Senate. Passed House and Senate (Senate vote 62–8; House earlier 59–11). Enrolled and signed into law March 31, 2025; effective July 1, 2025.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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