“Labor Omnia Vincit” McKay Law
Trip and fall incidents happen without warning—but the injuries can last a lifetime. If a business or landlord in Skiatook, OK allows tripping hazards to exist, people suffer preventable injuries. McKay Law fights for trip-and-fall victims throughout OK. Unlike slip-and-falls where you slide on a wet surface—trip-and-falls occur when an obstacle stops your foot from completing a step, 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. 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 the elements of a Oklahoma premises liability claim. Our Skiatook trip and fall accident attorneys move fast to preserve evidence—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. 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. Big-box retailers and their legal teams will often try to blame the victim—we know how to counter these defenses. Every trip-and-fall case is handled on a contingency basis—no fees unless we recover. Compensation may cover medical bills, future care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, and diminished quality of life. Call McKay Law now for a no-cost case review with a Skiatook, OK premises liability attorney who will pursue every dollar your injury is worth.
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 happen when the foot is abruptly caught, typically producing forward falls onto hands, knees, or face. The injuries can be just as severe as slip-and-falls — with common injuries including wrist breaks, facial fractures, and head trauma. McKay Law advocates for trip-and-fall victims in Skiatook 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 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). Recovery is available if your share stays at or below 50%, though the award is reduced by your share.
The deadline in Oklahoma is 2 years from the date of the fall to file (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). Government cases trigger one-year GTCA notice requirements. Time matters in these cases because surveillance footage is often overwritten within days or weeks.
We act fast to send preservation letters demanding surveillance video, capture the dangerous condition before it’s repaired, obtain documentation showing notice, coordinate with treating providers, and build each file for the courtroom.
A: Trip-and-falls catch your foot and send you forward; slip-and-falls lose traction and send you backward.
A: Nothing upfront. We only get paid if we win.
A: Could be a claim. We’d need to investigate who owns the sidewalk and assess the hazard.
A: We hear this constantly. 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. Cases with broken wrists, facial damage, or head injuries can be substantial.
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 two get conflated constantly, but in practice they’re distinct injury types.
A slip is loss of friction. The body pitches rearward.
Trips occur when a forward step is interrupted. The body pitches forward.
These different falls cause different harm.
Common trip-fall injuries are:
Trip hazards have a specific profile:
The proof requirements track standard premises liability:
The defect must be more than ordinary wear. Some areas have minimum height standards. Very minor irregularities may not support a case in some jurisdictions, while more substantial defects support claims clearly.
Awareness of the hazard is essential.
Trip hazards often involve permanent or long-standing conditions. 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.
Connection between hazard and fall. Defense counsel may dispute this when the fall wasn’t directly observed.
Actual injuries must be documented.
The go-to insurance argument. Defense argues the danger was apparent. The doctrine has limits in many circumstances, especially when the plaintiff’s attention was reasonably elsewhere.
Insurers argue the plaintiff wasn’t watching where they were walking. Shared-fault arguments may impact damages, they typically allow recovery to continue.
Defense argues that some unevenness is normal. The success of this argument depends on the size of the displacement.
“You’ve been here before”. Prior familiarity doesn’t necessarily defeat a claim.
Documentation gets harder as time passes. Photos showing the dimensions of the hazard are essential.
Get an incident report on file. Without contemporaneous documentation, the property owner may deny the fall happened.
Other customers, neighbors, or employees who saw the fall can be the deciding evidence.
History of falls at the location strengthens the case. Your attorney can pursue this through discovery.
Symptoms often develop later. Prompt evaluation locks in the injury connection.
Different defendants emerge based on the property type:
Recoverable losses include surgical expenses, physical therapy and rehabilitation, lost wages, permanent occupational limitations, loss of enjoyment of life, and effects on family where applicable.
Counsel handling these cases charge no upfront fees. Free initial consultations are standard.
Trip hazards get fixed quickly once a claim is filed. Without immediate evidence, the claim weakens significantly. Video proof disappears within weeks. The legal time limit with multiple deadlines depending on who’s liable creates time pressure. Getting an attorney involved fast protects the evidence and the claim.
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 retail shop — have a legal obligation to hold 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 ignore 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 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 partner with the McKay Law family, we act quickly to capture 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 wages, and the daily hardship that follow a fall that should have never happened. Phone us right away at (866) 679-9651 or reach out online to set up your free consultation and get a firm that takes these cases seriously in your corner.
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