“Labor Omnia Vincit” McKay Law
Falls caused by tripping hazards can happen in a split second—but the impact can change everything. If a business or landlord in Midwest City, OK fails to fix dangerous conditions, customers and guests pay the price. McKay Law fights for trip-and-fall victims throughout OK. While slip-and-fall accidents involve loss of traction—these falls happen when something unexpectedly snags your foot, sending you into an uncontrolled forward fall. Typical causes include sidewalk defects, parking lot hazards, store displays blocking paths, construction debris, and unmarked changes in floor elevation. Property owners have a legal duty to exercise reasonable care to protect visitors from foreseeable trip hazards—but holding them accountable demands experience. Establishing liability requires proving notice of the danger, the owner’s failure to act, and a direct link to your harm. Our Midwest City trip and fall accident attorneys act quickly to lock in proof—surveillance footage before it’s erased, photographs of the hazard, incident reports, witness statements, maintenance and inspection records, and prior complaints about the same condition. Many businesses overwrite surveillance footage within 7 to 30 days, so time matters. Victims frequently suffer severe sprains, multiple fractures, concussions, dental and facial damage, and long-term mobility problems—particularly devastating for older adults. Property owners and their insurers frequently argue you weren’t watching where you were going—we don’t let them dodge accountability. Every trip-and-fall case is handled on a contingency fee basis—zero upfront cost. Recoverable damages include hospital costs, rehabilitation, lost income, future medical needs, and the lasting impact on your life. Call McKay Law now for a free consultation with a Midwest City, 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. Different from slip-and-falls, where the foot loses traction, trip-and-falls involve the foot being suddenly halted, generally resulting in forward impact. The injuries are often equally serious — especially broken wrists, facial fractures, head injuries, and dental damage. McKay Law advocates for trip-and-fall victims in Midwest City and throughout Oklahoma.
Trip-and-falls and slip-and-falls have different mechanics — and the distinction matters legally:
Trips cause forward injuries — face, hands, knees. Slips cause backward injuries — hip, tailbone, back of 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 still recover if you are 50% or less at fault, with damages reduced by your fault percentage.
Oklahoma generally gives two years from the date of the fall to file (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). Public property cases require notice within one year. Trip-and-fall cases demand fast action because surveillance footage is often overwritten within days or weeks.
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 build each file for the courtroom.
A: Trips stop your foot and pitch you forward; slips slide your foot and drop you back.
A: Nothing. We only get paid if we win.
A: Possibly, yes. Both private owners and government entities can be liable, with different procedures for each.
A: Common defense. Oklahoma’s “open and obvious” doctrine has limits, and we routinely defeat these arguments.
A: No. Call us first.
A: Depends on injury severity, treatment, lost income, and permanent impact. Wrist fractures, facial injuries, and TBI cases carry significant 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.
People confuse trips and slips, but they aren’t the same legal claim. Different mechanics, different injuries, different defenses. An attorney familiar with these specific claims treats the case for what it actually is.
The two get conflated constantly, but in practice they’re distinct injury types.
Slips happen when friction fails — the foot goes one way, the body the other. The body pitches rearward.
A trip is an unexpected stop of the foot. People land on their hands, knees, face, or chest.
Slips and trips produce different injury patterns.
Trip injuries tend to include:
Trip hazards have a specific profile:
Like other premises cases, these claims have specific elements:
Minor irregularities don’t necessarily support liability. Many jurisdictions have established thresholds. A vertical displacement of less than half an inch may not support a case in some jurisdictions, while anything over an inch typically does.
Actual or constructive notice drives most cases.
Unlike a fresh spill, trip hazards are typically not transient. A spill might have appeared minutes before. These conditions are typically long-standing. This makes constructive notice easier to prove.
Causation must be established. Causation challenges are common when the plaintiff didn’t see what they tripped on.
Documented injuries are required.
The go-to insurance argument. Insurers say the hazard was obvious. The doctrine has limits in many circumstances, especially when the plaintiff’s attention was reasonably elsewhere.
Defense counsel asserts comparative negligence. Comparative negligence may cut damages, they rarely eliminate viable claims.
Defense counsel claims minor variations don’t support liability. How this argument plays out turns on the specific dimensions.
Defense claims familiarity with the location should have prevented the fall. This argument has weaknesses.
Property owners often repair the defect within days. Pictures with a coin or ruler for scale become critical evidence.
Get an incident report on file. If no record is made, the property owner may deny the fall happened.
Eyewitnesses can be the deciding evidence.
Other fall reports prove the hazard was known. These records often emerge during the case.
Symptoms often develop later. Quick medical attention creates the medical record insurers need to see.
Different defendants emerge based on the property type:
Trip-and-fall damages surgical expenses, ongoing care for permanent injuries, past and future income loss, diminished earning capacity, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium where applicable.
Trip-and-fall attorneys charge no upfront fees. Free initial consultations are standard.
Property owners typically repair the defect once a fall is reported. Without photographs taken at the time, the case may not survive. Video proof disappears within weeks. OK’s statute of limitations with shorter timelines for some defendants reinforces the need for quick action. Getting an attorney involved fast preserves every angle of the case.
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 require reconstructive surgery. Property owners — whether they run a office building — have a legal obligation to preserve 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 neglect 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 neglected 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 partner with the McKay Law family, we respond immediately to secure 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, missed paychecks, 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 arrange your free consultation and bring a firm that takes these cases seriously on your side.
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