“Labor Omnia Vincit” McKay Law
Trip-and-fall accidents occur faster than you can react—but the consequences can be permanent. When negligent maintenance in Broken Arrow, OK allows tripping hazards to exist, innocent visitors get hurt. 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, sending you into an uncontrolled forward fall. These accidents are often caused by broken pavement, transition strips, electrical cords across floors, damaged flooring, cluttered aisles, and unexpected height differences. Under Oklahoma premises liability law, owners must to exercise reasonable care to protect visitors from foreseeable trip hazards—but holding them accountable demands experience. To win a trip-and-fall claim the hazard existed, the owner knew or should have known about it, they failed to fix or warn about it, and that failure caused your injuries. Our Broken Arrow trip and fall accident attorneys act quickly to lock in proof—the physical evidence, video, witnesses, and the property owner’s maintenance history. Important evidence disappears fast, so time matters. 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—particularly devastating for older adults. Big-box retailers and their legal teams love to claim the hazard was “open and obvious”—we shut those tactics down with hard evidence. Every client we represent is handled on a contingency basis—no fees unless we recover. Compensation may cover emergency room costs, surgeries, ongoing therapy, missed work, and physical and emotional suffering. Contact McKay Law today for a free consultation with a Broken Arrow, OK trip and fall accident lawyer who will pursue every dollar your injury is worth.
Trip-and-falls happen when you catch your foot and pitch forward. While slip-and-falls involve sliding, trip-and-falls involve the foot being suddenly halted, 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 Broken Arrow and across the state.
The mechanics and injuries differ significantly between trip-and-falls and slip-and-falls:
Trip-and-falls typically produce forward-impact injuries — wrists, face, knees, head. Slip-and-falls hit the back and sides.
Oklahoma recognizes three types of people on property, with property owners owing different duties to each:
Oklahoma follows modified comparative fault (Okla. Stat. tit. 23, § 13). Recovery is available if your share stays at or below 50%, though your share reduces the final award.
Oklahoma generally gives two years from the date of the fall to file (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). Public property cases require GTCA notice within 12 months. Quick action is critical because video evidence vanishes fast.
We get to work immediately 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 treat each matter as trial-ready.
A: Trips stop your foot and pitch you forward; slips slide your foot and drop you back.
A: Nothing. No fee unless we recover.
A: Possibly, yes. Both private owners and government entities can be liable, with different procedures for each.
A: We hear this constantly. This defense often fails when the full circumstances come out.
A: Never. Talk to a lawyer first.
A: Value turns on injury seriousness, treatment, and permanent restrictions. Cases with broken wrists, facial damage, or head injuries can be substantial.
A: Special deadlines apply. 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-fall accidents get lumped in with slip-and-falls, but they’re genuinely different cases. These cases call for a different playbook. A Broken Arrow trip-and-fall attorney brings the right approach for trip-specific injuries.
People treat the two as synonyms, but in practice they’re distinct injury types.
A slip is loss of friction. The body pitches rearward.
In a trip, the foot catches on something. The body pitches forward.
The injuries from each type differ significantly.
Trips frequently produce:
The triggers are distinctive:
Like other premises cases, these claims have specific elements:
The condition must be unreasonably dangerous. Many jurisdictions have established thresholds. A vertical displacement of less than half an inch may not support a case in some jurisdictions, while larger displacements clearly create liability.
Actual or constructive notice drives most cases.
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. This makes constructive notice easier to prove.
The defect must have caused the trip. This is sometimes contested when the cause isn’t immediately apparent.
Actual injuries must be documented.
The go-to insurance argument. Defense argues the danger was apparent. OK courts apply the doctrine with varying strictness, especially when distractions made the hazard less obvious.
Defense counsel asserts comparative negligence. While OK’s comparative fault rules can reduce recovery, they typically allow recovery to continue.
Defense counsel claims minor variations don’t support liability. Whether this defense applies depends on the measurable extent of the hazard.
“You’ve been here before”. This argument has weaknesses.
Property owners often repair the defect within days. Pictures with a coin or ruler for scale are essential.
Get an incident report on file. Without contemporaneous documentation, the entire visit can later be disputed.
Eyewitnesses strengthen the case significantly.
Prior incidents establish notice. Counsel can investigate prior incidents.
Adrenaline masks injury. Quick medical attention anchors the claim.
The liable party varies with location:
Compensation can cover past and future medical care, ongoing care for permanent injuries, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, non-economic damages, and loss of consortium where applicable.
Counsel handling these cases earn fees only on recovery. Case reviews cost nothing.
Property owners typically repair the defect once a fall is reported. Without contemporaneous documentation, the case can become very difficult to prove. Video proof disappears within weeks. The legal time limit with shorter timelines for some defendants reinforces the need for quick action. Engaging counsel promptly 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 keep their walkways, parking lots, entrances, and floors in safe condition, and to caution visitors about hazards they can’t reasonably fix right away. When they neglect 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 partner with the McKay Law family, we act quickly to preserve surveillance footage, incident reports, inspection logs, prior complaints, and witness statements before they can vanish. We chase compensation for emergency room visits, surgeries, dental and reconstructive procedures, physical therapy, mobility aids, prescription costs, future medical care, missed paychecks, and the daily hardship that follow a fall that should have never happened. Reach us today at (866) 679-9651 or reach out online to book your free consultation and get a firm that takes these cases seriously fighting for you.
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