“Labor Omnia Vincit” McKay Law
Trip-and-fall accidents occur faster than you can react—but the consequences can be permanent. If a business or landlord in Duncan, OK fails to fix dangerous conditions, customers and guests pay the price. McKay Law fights for trip-and-fall victims throughout OK. Trip-and-falls are different from slip-and-falls—trip-and-falls happen when your foot catches on something, throwing you forward with no time to brace. Typical causes include broken pavement, transition strips, electrical cords across floors, damaged flooring, cluttered aisles, and unexpected height differences. Property owners have a legal duty to exercise reasonable care to protect visitors from foreseeable trip hazards—but winning your case requires the right evidence. To win a trip-and-fall claim notice of the danger, the owner’s failure to act, and a direct link to your harm. Our Duncan premises liability lawyers move fast to preserve evidence—security video, scene photos, employee testimony, and records of past incidents. Critical video evidence is often destroyed within weeks, 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. Insurance companies defending these cases frequently argue you weren’t watching where you were going—we know how to counter these defenses. Every trip-and-fall case is handled on a contingency basis—zero upfront cost. Compensation may cover hospital costs, rehabilitation, lost income, future medical needs, and the lasting impact on your life. Reach out to McKay Law right away for a no-cost case review with a Duncan, OK trip and fall accident lawyer who will stand up to the businesses and insurers protecting them.
Trip-and-falls happen when you catch your foot and pitch forward. Different from slip-and-falls, where the foot loses traction, trip-and-falls happen when the foot is suddenly stopped, usually causing the victim to fall forward onto outstretched hands, knees, or face. The injuries are often equally serious — with common injuries including wrist breaks, facial fractures, and head trauma. McKay Law represents trip-and-fall victims in Duncan and across the state.
The two types of falls work differently and produce different injuries:
Trip-and-falls typically produce forward-impact injuries — wrists, face, knees, head. Slips cause backward injuries — hip, tailbone, back of head.
Oklahoma recognizes three types of people on property, each carrying a different legal duty:
Oklahoma follows modified comparative fault (Okla. Stat. tit. 23, § 13). You can recover if you bear no more than 50% of the fault, though your share reduces the final award.
You typically have 2 years from the date of the fall to file (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). Government cases require notice within one year. Trip-and-fall cases demand fast action because critical video is routinely deleted on rolling cycles.
We move quickly to send preservation letters demanding surveillance video, secure measurements of height differentials and other hazard characteristics, obtain documentation showing notice, partner with healthcare providers, and treat each matter as trial-ready.
A: Different mechanics, different injury patterns.
A: Nothing upfront. No fee unless we recover.
A: Possibly, yes. We’d need to investigate who owns the sidewalk and assess the hazard.
A: Common defense. Oklahoma’s “open and obvious” doctrine has limits, and we routinely defeat these arguments.
A: Don’t. Talk to a lawyer first.
A: Value turns on injury seriousness, treatment, and permanent restrictions. Wrist fractures, facial injuries, and TBI cases carry significant value.
A: Government claims follow special procedures. Oklahoma’s Governmental Tort Claims Act requires notice within one year and caps damages.
A: 2 years from the date of the fall (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). Different rules apply for public property.
“Trip” and “slip” sound interchangeable — they aren’t, especially in court. Different mechanics, different injuries, different defenses. An attorney familiar with these specific claims treats the case for what it actually is.
The terms get used interchangeably in everyday speech, but in practice they’re distinct injury types.
In a slip, the foot loses traction and slides forward. The body typically falls backward.
Trips occur when a forward step is interrupted. The body pitches forward.
These different falls cause different harm.
Trip injuries tend to include:
The triggers are distinctive:
Like other premises cases, these claims have specific elements:
The condition must be unreasonably dangerous. Many jurisdictions have established thresholds. Tiny defects may not support a case in some jurisdictions, while larger displacements clearly create liability.
Knew or should have known is essential.
Trip hazards often involve permanent or long-standing conditions. Slip hazards can be momentary. These conditions are typically long-standing. Demonstrating the owner should have known is typically straightforward.
The defect must have caused the trip. Defense counsel may dispute this when the fall wasn’t directly observed.
Actual injuries must be documented.
The most common defense in trip-and-fall cases. Defense argues the danger was apparent. The doctrine has limits in many circumstances, especially when the plaintiff’s attention was reasonably elsewhere.
Defense counsel asserts comparative negligence. While OK’s comparative fault rules can reduce recovery, they rarely eliminate viable claims.
Defense argues that some unevenness is normal. How this argument plays out turns on the specific dimensions.
Defense claims familiarity with the location should have prevented the fall. This defense has limited reach.
The hazard will likely be fixed quickly. Pictures with a coin or ruler for scale are essential.
Insist on documentation. If no record is made, the entire visit can later be disputed.
Anyone present when the fall occurred strengthen the case significantly.
History of falls at the location strengthens the case. Your attorney can pursue this through discovery.
Even when injuries seem minor at the scene. Prompt evaluation creates the medical record insurers need to see.
Trip-and-fall liability depends on where the fall occurred:
Compensation can cover surgical expenses, long-term treatment, lost wages, permanent occupational limitations, loss of enjoyment of life, and impact on relationships where applicable.
Premises liability lawyers charge no upfront fees. Case reviews cost nothing.
Property owners typically repair the defect once a fall is reported. Without immediate evidence, the claim weakens significantly. Video proof gets overwritten on retention cycles. OK’s statute of limitations — particularly the shorter deadlines for government property claims — adds further urgency. Getting an attorney involved fast maximizes what these cases can recover.
An uneven floor tile 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 need reconstructive surgery. Property owners — whether they run a restaurant — have a legal obligation to preserve their walkways, parking lots, entrances, and floors in safe condition, and to notify visitors about hazards they can’t reasonably fix right away. When they skip that duty, people get hurt. At McKay Law, we dig into 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 join the McKay Law family, we waste no time to preserve surveillance footage, incident reports, inspection logs, prior complaints, and witness statements before they can vanish. We pursue compensation for emergency room visits, surgeries, dental and reconstructive procedures, physical therapy, mobility aids, prescription costs, future medical care, time off work, and the daily hardship that follow a fall that should have never happened. Contact us as soon as you can at (866) 679-9651 or reach out online to schedule your free consultation and bring a firm that takes these cases seriously in your corner.
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