“Labor Omnia Vincit” McKay Law
Falls caused by tripping hazards happen without warning—but the consequences can be permanent. When negligent maintenance in Collinsville, OK ignores obvious dangers, customers and guests pay the price. McKay Law represents trip-and-fall victims throughout OK. While slip-and-fall accidents involve loss of traction—trip-and-falls happen when your foot catches on something, often causing victims to land hard on hands, wrists, knees, or face. Typical causes include sidewalk defects, parking lot hazards, store displays blocking paths, construction debris, and unmarked changes in floor elevation. Under Oklahoma premises liability law, owners must to maintain safe walking surfaces and warn visitors of any hazards—but holding them accountable demands experience. Your attorney must demonstrate notice of the danger, the owner’s failure to act, and a direct link to your harm. Our Collinsville trip-and-fall attorneys act quickly to lock in proof—security video, scene photos, employee testimony, and records of past incidents. Many businesses overwrite surveillance footage within 7 to 30 days, so don’t wait. Victims frequently suffer broken wrists from bracing the fall, fractured arms, facial injuries, broken noses, dental damage, knee injuries, hip fractures, shoulder injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and herniated discs—with elderly victims facing increased risk of permanent disability. Property owners and their insurers will often try to blame the victim—we don’t let them dodge accountability. Every trip-and-fall case is handled on a contingency fee basis—you pay nothing unless we win. You may be entitled to recover for emergency room costs, surgeries, ongoing therapy, missed work, and physical and emotional suffering. Call McKay Law now for a no-cost case review with a Collinsville, OK trip and fall accident lawyer who will stand up to the businesses and insurers protecting them.
Trip-and-fall accidents happen when a person catches their foot on an obstacle, defect, or uneven surface and falls forward. While slip-and-falls involve sliding, trip-and-falls happen when the foot is suddenly stopped, typically producing forward falls onto hands, knees, or face. Trip-and-falls cause injuries every bit as devastating as slip-and-falls — especially broken wrists, facial fractures, head injuries, and dental damage. Our firm fights for trip-and-fall victims in Collinsville and throughout Oklahoma.
The two types of falls work differently and produce different injuries:
Trip-and-fall injuries are usually to the front of the body. Slip-and-falls typically produce backward-impact injuries — back, hips, head.
Oklahoma law classifies visitors into three categories, with different duties owed to each:
Oklahoma uses a modified comparative negligence system (Okla. Stat. tit. 23, § 13). You can recover if you bear no more than 50% of the fault, with damages reduced by your fault percentage.
You typically have 2 years from the date of the fall to file (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). Government cases trigger one-year GTCA notice requirements. Trip-and-fall cases demand fast action because critical video is routinely deleted on rolling cycles.
We act fast to demand preservation of all camera footage, document the hazard with photos, measurements, and expert analysis, obtain documentation showing notice, partner with healthcare providers, and prepare every case as if it will go to trial.
A: Different mechanics, different injury patterns.
A: Nothing upfront. No fee unless we recover.
A: Maybe — it depends. We’d need to investigate who owns the sidewalk and assess the hazard.
A: Standard argument. This defense often fails when the full circumstances come out.
A: Never. Refer them to your attorney.
A: Case value varies by injury severity, surgery, work loss, and lasting damage. Cases with broken wrists, facial damage, or head injuries can be substantial.
A: Different rules apply. Notice must be given within one year, and damages are capped.
A: Two years from the date of the fall (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). GTCA cases require notice within 12 months.
“Trip” and “slip” sound interchangeable — they aren’t, especially in court. The cause is different, the injury pattern is different, and the legal arguments are different. A local lawyer experienced with trip cases treats the case for what it actually is.
People treat the two as synonyms, though the underlying physics and resulting injuries differ significantly.
In a slip, the foot loses traction and slides forward. The body pitches rearward.
In a trip, the foot catches on something. The body falls in the direction of travel.
Slips and trips produce different injury patterns.
Trips frequently produce:
Trip hazards have a specific profile:
Trip-and-fall claims require establishing several elements:
The condition must be unreasonably dangerous. Some areas have minimum height standards. A vertical displacement of less than half an inch may not support a case in some jurisdictions, while anything over an inch typically does.
Knew or should have known is essential.
Trip-and-falls have a unique notice advantage compared to slip-and-falls. A spill might have appeared minutes before. Trip hazards — uplifted sidewalks, cracked floors, raised thresholds — usually develop over weeks, months, or years. Demonstrating the owner should have known is typically straightforward.
Connection between hazard and fall. This is sometimes contested when the plaintiff didn’t see what they tripped on.
Actual injuries must be documented.
The dominant defense argument. Defense argues the danger was apparent. The doctrine has limits in many circumstances, especially when distractions made the hazard less obvious.
Defense counsel asserts comparative negligence. Shared-fault arguments may impact damages, they typically allow recovery to continue.
Defense argues that some unevenness is normal. How this argument plays out turns on the size of the displacement.
“You’ve been here before”. Prior familiarity doesn’t necessarily defeat a claim.
The hazard will likely be fixed quickly. Pictures with a coin or ruler for scale become critical evidence.
Make sure a record is created. If no record is made, the property owner may deny the fall happened.
Other customers, neighbors, or employees who saw the fall can be the deciding evidence.
Prior incidents establish notice. These records often emerge during the case.
Adrenaline masks injury. Prompt evaluation creates the medical record insurers need to see.
The liable party varies with location:
Compensation can cover surgical expenses, long-term treatment, past and future income loss, reduced ability to work, loss of enjoyment of life, and effects on family where applicable.
Counsel handling these cases work on contingency. Case reviews cost nothing.
Trip hazards get fixed quickly once a claim is filed. Without immediate evidence, the claim weakens significantly. Video proof has limited retention. The filing deadline — particularly the shorter deadlines for government property claims — reinforces the need for quick action. Engaging counsel promptly maximizes what these cases can recover.
A torn piece of carpet doesn’t look like much — until your toe catches it and the ground rushes up to meet you. Trip-and-fall injuries happen in an instant, but the damage often lasts for years: broken wrists from bracing on impact, fractured hips, dislocated shoulders, concussions, knocked-out teeth, and facial injuries that demand reconstructive surgery. Property owners — whether they run a retail shop — have a legal obligation to preserve their walkways, parking lots, entrances, and floors in safe condition, and to alert visitors about hazards they can’t reasonably fix right away. When they disregard that duty, people get hurt. At McKay Law, we examine how the hazard came to exist, how long it had been there, whether anyone reported it, and what the property owner did — or didn’t do — about it.
The insurance company’s first move in a trip-and-fall claim is almost always the same: blame you. They’ll argue you weren’t watching where you were going, that the hazard was open and obvious, that your footwear was wrong, or that you were distracted by your phone. We’ve heard it all, and we know how to dismantle it. When you come into the McKay Law family, we respond immediately to secure surveillance footage, incident reports, inspection logs, prior complaints, and witness statements before they can vanish. We fight for compensation for emergency room visits, surgeries, dental and reconstructive procedures, physical therapy, mobility aids, prescription costs, future medical care, lost income, and the daily hardship that follow a fall that should have never happened. Reach us now at (866) 679-9651 or reach out online to arrange your free consultation and bring a firm that takes these cases seriously in your corner.
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