By AIMEE GREEN/The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oregon ski areas, river rafting guides, gyms and many other recreational providers are celebrating the passage Friday of a bill that will restore strength to the liability waivers that were significantly weakened by the Oregon Supreme Court more than a decade ago.

The companies — as well as nonprofit groups like trail maintenance organizations, summer camps and park and recreation districts — hope Senate Bill 1517 will diminish the risk of costly lawsuits, prevent insurance companies from leaving the state and harness fast-rising insurance premiums that they say are threatening to put them out of business.

The bill’s passage by the Oregon Legislature marks a high point for ski areas and other recreational providers who’ve been lobbying for change since the state’s high court in 2014 ruled liability waivers under many circumstances “unconscionable.”

The heavily negotiated bill even left Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Eugene Democrat who is one of the biggest defenders of injured recreationalists’ right to sue, “really pleased.”

On the flip side, backers of the effort to shield recreational providers from lawsuits cheered, as well.

“This is a big win for Oregon,” said Sen. Mark Meek, D-Oregon City. “Do I wish it went further? Absolutely.”

But, added Meek, “this is a big deal.”

The bill will raise the legal bar for lawsuits by stating that Oregonians can sign away their rights to sue for “ordinary negligence,” which is generally understood as minor degrees of carelessness or inattentiveness on the part of recreational providers. The bill wouldn’t allow people to waive their rights to sue if they were harmed because of a higher degree of recklessness or indifference, known as “gross negligence.”

The bill, however, carves out exceptions that would allow injured people to sue under the lower bar of “ordinary negligence” — such as when the equipment provided by the business or organization was improperly maintained, employees were negligently trained or an injured person was hurt by a vehicle like a snowcat, snowmobile, ATV or bus that someone else ran into them.

The bill passed the House 55-2 on Thursday and the Senate 29-0 on Friday. The most piercing opposition came from Rep. Nathan Sosa, D-Hillsboro and a lawyer who represents injured people and argued that all Oregonians have a right for their perceived wrongs to be aired before a jury.

“I fundamentally disagree with the notion that anybody, anybody can sign away rights they are guaranteed in our Constitution,” Sosa told colleagues Thursday.

“What if in order to ski you had to sign away your right to free speech?” Sosa continued. “What if in order to go whitewater rafting, you had to sign away your right to freedom of religion? What if in order to go to your neighborhood gym, you had to sign away your right to vote?”

Sosa contended that years in the future, Oregonians who suffer permanent brain damage, spinal injuries that leave them unable to walk or the loss of limbs because of the “carelessness” of companies will discover that they are unable to seek compensation in the courts that would help them put their lives back together.

“They are going to discover that buried in the language somewhere on a form that they probably didn’t fully read and clicked through, in some footnote they’ve signed away, a fundamental right they thought they had,” Sosa said. “And they’re going to wonder how that’s even possible. And the answer is back in 2026 legislators said it was OK to do that in the hope of appeasing the insurance industry.”

Rep. Kim Wallan, R-Medford, however, countered that people are free to waive their constitutional rights, like when they let police into their homes without a warrant or they choose to defend themselves in criminal court instead of relying on a public defender. In the case of recreationalists who later become injured, they can waive their rights to sue as long as what they’re doing is “clear and unambiguous.”

“No one says you have to strap skinny fiberglass sticks to your feet and hurtle yourself down a mountain,” Wallan said. “This is an option. This is your choice.”

Proponents of the bill said it strikes the right balance between injured people’s rights and the need for Oregon to preserve the economic vitality of recreational providers. Ski resorts, in particular, say they’ve been hit especially hard by insurers fleeing Oregon and ballooning insurance rates because the insurance companies say it’s easier to sue in Oregon than any other western state.

Sen. Noah Robinson, R-Cave Junction, voted for the bill but said he worries it isn’t tough enough to protect recreational providers from lawsuits. He said he worries plaintiffs’ lawyers will use one of the exceptions for lawsuits in the bill to “shoehorn” a lawsuit through the court system.

Meek, a chief backer of efforts to change Oregon’s liability waiver law, said Friday that it’s “probably inevitable” that the Legislature will need to fine-tune parts of the legislation in future years.

“I’ll closely be monitoring the results of what we’re passing here today,” Meek said. “But make no mistake, this bill is a significant improvement from where current law stands.”

The bill now awaits Gov. Tina Kotek’s signature.