“Labor Omnia Vincit” McKay Law
Falls caused by tripping hazards happen without warning—but the impact can change everything. When negligent maintenance in Tulsa, OK allows tripping hazards to exist, customers and guests pay the price. McKay Law represents trip-and-fall victims throughout OK. Unlike slip-and-falls where you slide on a wet surface—trip-and-falls happen when your foot catches on something, often causing victims to land hard on hands, wrists, knees, or face. 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 exercise reasonable care to protect visitors from foreseeable trip hazards—but holding them accountable demands experience. Your attorney must demonstrate 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 Tulsa premises liability lawyers immediately begin building your case—security video, scene photos, employee testimony, and records of past incidents. Many businesses overwrite surveillance footage within 7 to 30 days, so time matters. These accidents often cause severe sprains, multiple fractures, concussions, dental and facial damage, and long-term mobility problems—especially serious for seniors. Property owners and their insurers love to claim the hazard was “open and obvious”—we shut those tactics down with hard evidence. Every trip-and-fall case is handled on a no-win, no-fee basis—no fees unless we recover. You may be entitled to recover for 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 Tulsa, 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. Different from slip-and-falls, where the foot loses traction, trip-and-falls happen when the foot is abruptly caught, usually causing the victim to fall forward onto outstretched hands, knees, or face. The injuries are often equally serious — particularly wrist fractures, facial injuries, head trauma, and dental damage. McKay Law represents trip-and-fall victims in Tulsa 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. 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). Public property cases trigger one-year GTCA notice requirements. Time matters in these cases because surveillance footage is often overwritten within days or weeks.
We move quickly to demand preservation of all camera footage, secure measurements of height differentials and other hazard characteristics, obtain documentation showing notice, work with treating doctors, 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. No fee unless we recover.
A: Could be a claim. Government entities and private property owners can be liable for unsafe sidewalks — but special rules apply for public sidewalks.
A: Common defense. Oklahoma’s “open and obvious” doctrine has limits, and we routinely defeat these arguments.
A: No. 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: Two years from the date of the fall (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95). Government cases require one-year notice.
Trip-and-fall accidents get lumped in with slip-and-falls, but they’re genuinely different cases. The cause is different, the injury pattern is different, and the legal arguments are different. A local lawyer experienced with trip cases knows how to build them on their own terms.
The two get conflated constantly, but the mechanics are different and the cases play out differently.
Slips happen when friction fails — the foot goes one way, the body the other. The body pitches rearward.
In a trip, the foot catches on something. The body pitches forward.
Slips and trips produce different injury patterns.
Trip injuries tend to include:
Trips have characteristic causes:
Like other premises cases, these claims have specific elements:
The condition must be unreasonably dangerous. Courts often look at the size of the hazard. 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 is the central battleground.
Trip-and-falls have a unique notice advantage compared to slip-and-falls. A spill might have appeared minutes before. Trip hazards tend to have substantial history. The notice element is often stronger in trip cases.
Connection between hazard and fall. Defense counsel may dispute this when the plaintiff didn’t see what they tripped on.
Documented injuries are required.
The most common defense in trip-and-fall cases. Defendants claim the hazard was visible and the plaintiff should have seen it. OK courts apply the doctrine with varying strictness, especially when the conditions made the hazard hard to see.
“You should have been looking down”. Comparative negligence may cut damages, they rarely eliminate viable claims.
Defense argues that some unevenness is normal. Whether this defense applies depends on the specific dimensions.
Defense argues the plaintiff had previously navigated the area. This argument has weaknesses.
Property owners often repair the defect within days. Pictures with a coin or ruler for scale provide the best proof.
Make sure a record is created. Without an official report, the entire visit can later be disputed.
Eyewitnesses strengthen the case significantly.
Prior incidents establish notice. These records often emerge during the case.
Symptoms often develop later. Quick medical attention creates the medical record insurers need to see.
The liable party varies with location:
Compensation can cover past and future medical care, ongoing care for permanent injuries, past and future income loss, reduced ability to work, non-economic damages, and impact on relationships where applicable.
Premises liability lawyers work on contingency. Case reviews cost nothing.
Property owners typically repair the defect once a fall is reported. Without immediate evidence, the case can become very difficult to prove. Video proof gets overwritten on retention cycles. The filing deadline with shorter timelines for some defendants 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 demand reconstructive surgery. Property owners — whether they run a apartment complex — 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 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 lock down 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, lost wages, and the physical and emotional toll that follow a fall that should have never happened. Call us right away at (866) 679-9651 or reach out online to arrange your free consultation and bring a firm that takes these cases seriously behind you.
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