“Labor Omnia Vincit” McKay Law
Falls caused by tripping hazards can happen in a split second—but the consequences can be permanent. If a business or landlord in Durant, OK allows tripping hazards to exist, customers and guests pay the price. McKay Law fights for trip-and-fall victims throughout OK. Unlike slip-and-falls where you slide on a wet surface—these falls happen when something unexpectedly snags your foot, throwing you forward with no time to brace. Common tripping hazards include sidewalk defects, parking lot hazards, store displays blocking paths, construction debris, and unmarked changes in floor elevation. The law requires property owners to inspect for tripping dangers, fix them, and warn of any they can’t immediately address—but proving they breached that duty takes solid legal work. Establishing liability requires proving notice of the danger, the owner’s failure to act, and a direct link to your harm. Our Durant trip-and-fall attorneys move fast to preserve evidence—the physical evidence, video, witnesses, and the property owner’s maintenance history. Important evidence disappears fast, so calling an attorney early is critical. 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. Big-box retailers and their legal teams 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 no-win, no-fee basis—zero upfront cost. Recoverable damages include medical bills, future care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, and diminished quality of life. Contact McKay Law today for a no-cost case review with a Durant, OK trip-and-fall lawyer who will pursue every dollar your injury is worth.
A trip-and-fall occurs when something on the ground catches your foot and sends you down. Unlike slip-and-falls, where the foot slides, 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 — especially broken wrists, facial fractures, head injuries, and dental damage. McKay Law represents trip-and-fall victims in Durant and across the state.
Trip-and-falls and slip-and-falls have different mechanics — and the distinction matters legally:
Trips cause forward injuries — face, hands, knees. Slip-and-falls typically produce backward-impact injuries — back, hips, head.
Oklahoma recognizes three types of people on property, each carrying a different legal duty:
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.
The deadline in Oklahoma is 2 years from the date of the fall to file (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). Cases on public sidewalks require GTCA notice within 12 months. Trip-and-fall cases demand fast action because video evidence vanishes fast.
We move quickly to lock down store video before it’s overwritten, document the hazard with photos, measurements, and expert analysis, investigate the property’s records, work with treating doctors, 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 upfront. No fee unless we recover.
A: Maybe — it depends. Government entities and private property owners can be liable for unsafe sidewalks — but special rules apply for public sidewalks.
A: Common defense. This defense often fails when the full circumstances come out.
A: Don’t. Talk to a lawyer first.
A: Depends on injury severity, treatment, lost income, and permanent impact. Severity drives value.
A: Government claims follow special procedures. 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). Different rules apply for public property.
Trip-and-fall accidents get lumped in with slip-and-falls, but they’re genuinely different cases. Different mechanics, different injuries, different defenses. A Durant trip-and-fall attorney treats the case for what it actually is.
The terms get used interchangeably in everyday speech, though the underlying physics and resulting injuries differ significantly.
Slips happen when friction fails — the foot goes one way, the body the other. The body typically falls backward.
A trip is an unexpected stop of the foot. People land on their hands, knees, face, or chest.
The injuries from each type differ significantly.
Common trip-fall injuries are:
Trips have characteristic causes:
The proof requirements track standard premises liability:
The defect must be more than ordinary wear. 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.
Awareness of the hazard is the central battleground.
Trip hazards often involve permanent or long-standing conditions. Slip cases often struggle on the duration question. These conditions are typically long-standing. Demonstrating the owner should have known is typically straightforward.
Connection between hazard and fall. Defense counsel may dispute this when the plaintiff didn’t see what they tripped on.
Medical proof of harm.
The go-to insurance argument. Insurers say the hazard was obvious. OK courts apply the doctrine with varying strictness, especially when the plaintiff’s attention was reasonably elsewhere.
“You should have been looking down”. Comparative negligence may cut damages, they usually don’t bar recovery entirely.
“Sidewalks aren’t perfect”. The success of this argument depends on the specific dimensions.
“You’ve been here before”. Prior familiarity doesn’t necessarily defeat a claim.
Documentation gets harder as time passes. Pictures with a coin or ruler for scale are essential.
Insist on documentation. Without an official report, the case becomes harder to prove.
Anyone present when the fall occurred strengthen the case significantly.
Prior incidents establish notice. Counsel can investigate prior incidents.
Adrenaline masks injury. Same-day medical documentation locks in the injury connection.
Trip-and-fall liability depends on where the fall occurred:
Trip-and-fall damages surgical expenses, ongoing care for permanent injuries, missed work, diminished earning capacity, non-economic damages, and impact on relationships where applicable.
Premises liability lawyers work on contingency. First meetings carry no charge.
The hazard often disappears within days. Without contemporaneous documentation, the case may not survive. Video proof has limited retention. OK’s statute of limitations with shorter timelines for some defendants adds further urgency. Getting an attorney involved fast preserves every angle of the case.
A cracked sidewalk 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 require reconstructive surgery. Property owners — whether they run a office building — have a legal obligation to maintain their walkways, parking lots, entrances, and floors in safe condition, and to warn visitors about hazards they can’t reasonably fix right away. When they disregard that duty, people get hurt. At McKay Law, we uncover how the hazard came to exist, how long it had been there, whether anyone reported it, and what the property owner did — or never bothered to 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 sign on with the McKay Law family, we move fast to lock down surveillance footage, incident reports, inspection logs, prior complaints, and witness statements before they can get lost. We pursue compensation for emergency room visits, surgeries, dental and reconstructive procedures, physical therapy, mobility aids, prescription costs, future medical care, lost wages, and the ongoing struggle 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 on your side.
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