Various types of legal documents and forms can be used for legal practices. While some of these legal agreements are useful during and after a legal case, others can protect you beforehand as well. One such valuable legal document or form happens to be the Hold Harmless Agreement.
This legal document holds you harmless in various legal proceedings. To be more exact, an HHA or a hold harmless agreement is used to protect you and even your organization to be held responsible and accountable for different types of body or property damages. Depending on the type of work you do or the type of business you run, having a harmless form in place can help you avoid all kinds of lawsuits. This type of hold harmless clause is especially important for high-risk work where someone or something can potentially get damaged.
If you also work in a similar industry, then make sure to check out this detailed guide about hold harmless agreements. You will find everything from what a hold harmless agreement is to the complete process of drafting a hold harmless agreement PDF.
In this article
What is a Hold Harmless Agreement?
While we have stated the basics, some of you might want to know what a hold harmless letter is in much more detail. To help you understand the same better, let’s take a look at a simple hold harmless clause example.
Let’s say you are running a construction company or a manufacturing business. In such cases, there is a fairly high chance of people getting hurt because of accidents. Similarly, you can even face damages to physical property by accidents and other incidents. Depending on the severity of such incidents, the chances of getting sued and facing a lawsuit are much higher.
This is exactly why having a hold harmless indemnity agreement for yourself and your business is highly important. If you have a hold harmless agreement in place, you won’t be legally liable for such an accident. In short, the hold harmless agreement definition is that it is an agreement that is referred to as a liability waiver or a hold harmless letter, which is a document to protect you from lawsuits and any other legal issues.
However, being a legal document, knowing the exact legal implications as well as the protections available are both equally important. Starting with the implications, you need to go with a reciprocal hold harmless clause over a unilateral hold harmless clause, which makes the latter better. As for protections, these HHA documents are primarily focused on protecting you from lawsuits.
When to Use a Hold Harmless Agreement?
Apart from knowing what a hold harmless agreement is, you should also know the purpose of a hold harmless agreement and when to use it. As mentioned previously, any kind of business where either you or your clients can get hurt or injured is exactly where you need a release and hold harmless agreement. Some such businesses include:
- Gyms and fitness clubs
- Adventure and theme parks
- Sports and activities
- Construction sites
- Manufacturing industries
- And many more
Other than running such a business and having a hold harmless agreement for the same, these HHA documents are great for individuals as well. For example, if you are living in a rental home, you can have a hold harmless agreement to avoid lawsuits if you get injured because of any accidents in your home. The opposite is also true for the landowners who don’t want to deal with a lawsuit.
Key Components of a Hold Harmless Agreement 250
Before you go ahead and use a hold harmless form template, you should also understand the different components of such a document. For this, there are primarily three types of elements that should be included in all hold harmless agreements, including the following:
- Scope: All parties need to collectively decide the goal or the scope of an HHA document.
- Duration: Depending on your needs, a given HHA form can be valid for a certain duration.
- Liability Terms: You can even specify the exact things that are a part of your liability waiver if needed.
In order to choose the right hold harmless agreement sample or template, you also need to understand the type of hold harmless agreement required for your business and application. Hence, here are some common types of hold harmless clauses and their typical use-case scenarios:
- Unilateral HHA: Only one party agrees not to hold the other party responsible.
- Reciprocal HHA: Both of the parties have agreed not to hold the other party responsible.
How to Draft a Hold Harmless Agreement Using Wondershare PDFelement
By now, you must have clearly understood the meaning of a hold harmless agreement and every other detail regarding it. Now that all of that is out of the way let’s learn how to make a hold harmless agreement.
For this, you need to know the steps required to create an HHA, the necessary documents and tools, and the right hold harmless form template to draft a hold harmless agreement. So, let’s start with the steps:
- Plan It Out: Before making one, make sure HHA is applicable in your state.
- Add Details: You need to add details like the date, details of parties, activity details, signature, etc.
- Legal Format: The HHA needs to be in a legally accepted format for the text style and page layout.
- Consult a Lawyer: Make sure to get your HHA checked by a lawyer once it is made.
Now that you have understood the required key steps given in the hold harmless agreement example given above, you can simply use the right tools to make this document for you. For the same, you should definitely consider using Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor Wondershare PDFelement Wondershare PDFelement since it offers these features:
- PDF Merge: Combine multiple PDF files together to make one
- PDF Convert: Easily convert PDF files to other file formats and vice versa
- E-Signature: Add digital signature to legal documents like HHA files
- Compress: Reduce the size of PDF files to save on storage space
- Organize: Organize your multiple PDF files with ease
- AI Tools: Add text easily using AI tools to save time while having more creativity
- Templates: Quickly and easily make documents using amazing templates
As for making a hold harmless agreement document using Wondershare PDFelement, here are the exact steps for the same:
Step 1
Start by opening Wondershare PDFelement and select the Template option.
Step 2
Now, find and open a good hold harmless agreement or legal document that you like.
Step 3
Then, edit the template according to the hold harmless agreement you want to use.
Step 4
Finally, go to File, and select Save As to save your hold harmless agreement as a PDF file.
Practical Tips for Effective Hold Harmless Agreements
To make the perfect hold harmless agreement, you should consider these tips:
- Party Identification: You should clearly mention all the parties involved in a hold harmless agreement along with their address and contact information.
- Activity Description: The activities taking place at your business that can potentially cause an injury need to be mentioned.
- Risk Assumption: A well-made, harmless hold agreement assumes that all parties understand the risks involved.
- Indemnification: The hold harmless agreement requires the parties assuming the risks are going to indemnify and hold harmless other parties for any losses.
- Insurance: Every party involved in a hold harmless agreement should have a good insurance plan to cover expenses in case of any damages.
Conclusion: How to Make a Hold Harmless Agreement
Running any kind of business requires you to have the right legal documents to protect your business as well as yourself as an individual. This becomes even more important where there are possibilities for possible accidents or damages to individuals or property.
If you do not want to be held liable in such a case and possibly face lawsuits, you should definitely get a hold harmless agreement. Thus, we have provided a complete guide on how to make a hold harmless agreement. You can even learn all other details regarding a hold harmless letter and much more.
