“His feet hit the mat, and almost instantly his knees buckled down, and he just let out the worst scream that you could ever have heard from a child.” That is the voice of Kaitlin “Kati” Hill, a mother whose three-year-old son sustained a broken femur in a body cast after a visit to a trampoline park. She later told ABC News, “We had no idea. We would have never put our baby boy on a trampoline if we would have known.”
For families in Hickory Creek, Texas, a weekend trip to a trampoline park or a birthday party in a neighbor’s backyard is supposed to be about laughter and exercise. But as we have seen in our twenty-five years of catastrophic injury practice, these venues are often engineered for profit at the expense of pediatric safety. Whether your child was injured at a major franchise like Launch Entertainment in Lewisville, Urban Air in Denton, or a residential trampoline in a Hickory Creek neighborhood near Lake Lewisville, the aftermath is a nightmare of medical bills, surgical consultations, and a sudden, terrifying uncertainty about your child’s future.
We are The Manginello Law Firm—Attorney911. We represent families who are facing the unthinkable. We don’t just “handle” personal injury cases; we dismantle the systemic negligence that leads to these outcomes. Led by Ralph Manginello, who brings over two decades of trial experience and federal court admission, and bolstered by Lupe Peña, an attorney who spent years defending insurance companies and recreational businesses, we provide a level of strategic depth most firms cannot match. Lupe Peña knows the defense playbook because he helped write it. He knows which waiver clauses hold up and which ones are full of holes. And for our Spanish-speaking neighbors in Hickory Creek, Lupe speaks with you directly—sin intérpretes.
At our firm, we understand that a trampoline injury in Hickory Creek is not an accident. It is a business decision made by a corporation that chose to understaff a court or a manufacturer that sold a product the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has warned against since 1999. If your family is sitting in a trauma bay right now, or if you are watching your child struggle with a growth plate injury that may not fully manifest for years, you need to know that you are not alone, and the signature you gave at a kiosk is not the end of your rights.
The Physics of a Hickory Creek Trampoline Accident: Why the Standard Fails
The trampoline industry operates under a voluntary safety standard known as ASTM F2970. In thirty-nine states, including Texas, this standard is not even mandatory law; it is the industry’s own internal “safety floor.” But even when parks claim to follow it, the basic physics of a trampoline bed are often more than a child’s body can handle.
One of the most dangerous mechanisms we litigate is the “double-bounce.” Imagine this: an eighty-pound child is pushing off a trampoline mat in Hickory Creek at the same moment a 200-pound adult lands on the connected bed. Kinetic energy transfers through the mat, multiplying the child’s launch force by up to four times. The child isn’t jumping anymore—they are being launched like a projectile. This energy transfer is the primary cause of comminuted femoral shaft fractures and the dreaded “trampoline fracture” of the proximal tibial metaphysis.
When your child arrives at a Level 1 pediatric trauma center like Cook Children’s in Fort Worth or Children’s Medical Center Dallas, the surgeons aren’t seeing an “inherent risk of play.” They are seeing the results of energy loads that exceed pediatric bone density. ASTM F2970 requires parks to enforce age and weight separation, but walk into any park serving Hickory Creek on a Saturday afternoon and you will see 17-year-old “court monitors” allowing toddlers and teenagers to share the same air. That is a choice. It is a violation of the industry’s own standard. And it is the foundation of our case against them.
The Waiver You Signed in Hickory Creek: It Is Noise, Not a Wall
The first thing an insurance adjuster will do when they call your home in Hickory Creek is mention the waiver. They want you to believe that because you clicked “I agree” on an iPad, your family has no path to recovery.
We are here to tell you that the waiver is a tactic, not a total shield. Texas courts, including those serving Denton County, have established clear rules for what a waiver can and cannot do. Under the Dresser Industries v. Page Petroleum doctrine, a release for future negligence must be both “conspicuous” and meet the “express negligence” rule. If the waiver didn’t use the word “negligence” clearly, or if it was buried in fine print on a screen you were pressured to clear in seconds, it may be legally void.
More importantly, for our Hickory Creek parents, the landmark Texas case of Munoz v. II Jaz, Inc. established that a parent generally cannot sign away a minor child’s independent right to sue for personal injuries. While the Texas Supreme Court recently issued a nuanced ruling in Cerna v. Pearland Urban Air regarding arbitration delegation clauses, the substantive right of a child to seek compensation for gross negligence remains alive.
In Harris County, a few hours from here, a jury awarded $11.485 million—including $6 million in punitive damages—against the operator of Cosmic Jump after a teenager fell through a torn trampoline slide onto a concrete floor. The waiver was signed. The jury found gross negligence anyway. That is the largest reported jury verdict of its kind, and it proves that no piece of paper can immunize a park against the conscious indifference to your child’s safety.
Pediatric Specificity: The Damages Most Hickory Creek Lawyers Miss
When a child is injured on a trampoline, the damage isn’t just today’s ER bill. It is the next seventy years of their development. At Attorney911, we focus on the “Hidden Damages” that other firms overlook.
- Salter-Harris Growth Plate Fractures: Because children’s bones are still developing, a break through the physis (growth plate) can lead to limb-length discrepancies or angular deformities. We have seen cases where the full extent of the damage didn’t manifest until the child hit a growth spurt three years later. By then, other lawyers have already settled the case for pennies.
- SCIWORA (Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality): This is a pediatric-specific disaster. A child can land on their head or neck in a foam pit at a park near Lewisville, have a “normal” CT scan in the ER, and yet suffer progressive cord ischemia. The cord is injured even if the bones didn’t break. If the park staff or the ER didn’t recognize the signs, that delay in care is part of the negligence.
- The TBI Cascade: A “concussion” in a developing brain is a catastrophic event. We look for academic regression, executive function loss, and behavioral shifts that may not stabilize for years. We work with pediatric neuropsychologists to ensure your child’s future educational needs and lost earning capacity are fully quantified.
Call us today at 1-888-ATTY-911. We advance every expense for these experts—the biomechanists, the pediatric orthopedic surgeons, the life-care planners—so your child’s recovery fund stays intact. You pay nothing unless we win.
Rhabdomyolysis: The Under-Recognized Crisis in Texas Jump Parks
One of the most terrifying conditions we see is exertional rhabdomyolysis. We are currently litigating a $10 million lawsuit against a major university involving this exact pathology. In a trampoline park setting, rhabdo occurs when a child jumps continuously for sixty or ninety minutes in a hot, poorly ventilated facility with inadequate hydration.
The muscle tissue breaks down and releases myoglobin into the blood. Twelve to forty-eight hours later, your child may have cola-colored urine, extreme muscle pain, and vomiting. This is a medical emergency that leads to acute kidney failure. The parks know this risk; they sell “unlimited jump” passes that encourage this exertion. Our medical experts know how to document the CK levels and the renal tubular damage that follow these sessions. If your child arrived at a Denton County emergency room in kidney failure after a jump session, this is not a “freak illness.” It is a documented injury mechanism that our firm is uniquely built to handle.
The Evidence Clock: Why Every Hour in Hickory Creek Counts
Trampoline park evidence is engineered to disappear. The DVR systems at most parks in North Texas are set to overwrite on a 7-to-30-day cycle. The incident report you filled out the night of the injury exists on a computer system where metadata can show who “revised” it and when. The waiver kiosk database may purge on a 72-hour rolling cycle.
When you retain us, our spoliation letter goes out to the park, the franchisor (like Sky Zone, Inc. or Unleashed Brands), and the insurance carrier within 24 hours. We don’t wait for them to “lose” the video. We demand the DVR hard drive, the access logs, and a sworn affidavit from their IT department. By the time the EMS unit has returned to the station, we are already working to freeze the evidence.
Don’t wait until the park’s risk management team has sanitized the scene. Call 1-888-ATTY-911 now. Hablamos Español. Our Texas offices serve Hickory Creek with the same aggressive federal-court-tested representation we’ve applied to Fortune 500 companies like BP and Walmart.
Frequently Asked Questions for Hickory Creek Families
Can I sue if I signed the waiver at the park in Lewisville or Denton?
Yes. In Texas, waivers are deeply flawed when it comes to gross negligence and the rights of minor children. If the park violated ASTM F2970 standards for staffing or equipment maintenance, the waiver is often legally irrelevant. We have defeated these “paper shields” repeatedly.
Who is really responsible for my child’s injury?
It’s rarely just one person. We look at the “five-layer stack”: the operator LLC, the multi-unit franchisee, the franchisor (like Urban Air Franchise Holdings), the corporate parent (like Sky Zone, Inc. or Unleashed Brands backed by Seidler Equity Partners), and the equipment manufacturer. The money is upstream, and we go where the money is.
My child was hurt on a neighbor’s backyard trampoline in Hickory Creek. What are my rights?
Texas follows the “attractive nuisance” doctrine. A homeowner with an accessible trampoline can be liable if they didn’t secure it against neighborhood children who cannot appreciate the risk. Even if their homeowner’s insurance excludes trampolines, we look for umbrella policies, manufacturer defects from brands like Jumpking or Skywalker, and retailer liability from Walmart or Amazon.
How much is my child’s case worth?
Every child’s future is different, but national settlements for catastrophic trampoline injuries often reach the multi-million dollar range. A Salter-Harris fracture at age 8 can be worth $500,000 to $2 million because of the lifetime of orthopedic care and functional loss. We don’t guess—we have a life-care planner and a forensic economist build a 50-year medical projection.
Why Hickory Creek Families Trust The Manginello Law Firm
Most personal injury firms treat a trampoline case like a slip-and-fall. We don’t. We built our practice around the international standards—including EN ISO 23659:2022—that the U.S. industry chooses to ignore. We know that Sky Zone’s internal manuals instruct employees to “BE AWARE OF THE PADS” while keeping that knowledge from the families who jump. We know that Urban Air has a documented chain-wide pattern of Sky Rider zipline strangulations.
We represent families in Town of Hickory Creek and across the country on a contingency-fee basis. That means zero upfront costs to you. We take the risk so you can focus on your child’s surgery and recovery. As our client Chad Harris said, “You are NOT a pest to them and you are NOT just some client… You are FAMILY to them.”
If your family’s life changed in one bad landing, the clock is running. Every minute the park delays a response is a minute the surveillance video gets closer to being deleted. Our spoliation letter is already drafted. Our biomechanical engineers are on call.
What happened to your child at the park wasn’t an accident—it was the predictable output of a system that prioritized margin over safety. We have gone head-to-head with the largest corporations on the planet including BP, Walmart, and Amazon. The parent conglomerates behind the big trampoline park chains don’t intimidate us. We make them pay.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hablamos Español. Your child’s recovery fund starts with one call.
Understanding the Liability: The 5-Layer Defendant Stack
When we say “we sue Sky Zone,” we aren’t just talking about a single entity. The corporate world has spent millions of dollars building a liability shield to keep you from the money your child needs. In Hickory Creek cases, we pierce that shield by identifying every layer of the defendant stack.
- The Operator LLC: This is the specific local business running the park in Lewisville or Denton. They are usually undercapitalized and have a $1 million primary policy that rarely covers a catastrophic brain or spinal injury.
- The Franchisee: The multi-unit owner who may operate five or ten different locations. Their own operational decisions often lead to the staffing shortages we see during peak Hickory Creek hours.
- The Franchisor: This is the entity that licenses the brand, such as Sky Zone Franchising LLC or Urban Air Franchise Holdings. They mandate the safety manuals and the training programs. If those programs are flawed, the franchisor is on the hook.
- The Corporate Parent: Since 2023, the industry has seen massive consolidation. Sky Zone, Inc. (formerly CircusTrix LLC) is now the parent for Sky Zone, DEFY, and Rockin’ Jump—all backed by Palladium Equity Partners. Urban Air is parented by Unleashed Brands and Seidler Equity Partners.
- The Equipment Manufacturer: If a mat tore, a spring failed, or a harness didn’t lock, the manufacturer of that specific component—like Ropes Courses, Inc. in the Matthew Lu case—must be held accountable.
The Evidence We Secure: Documentation Like a Paralegal
Other firms say they will “investigate.” We perform an forensic deep-dive. Before the park can “finalize” an incident report, we are demanding:
- Audit Trail Metadata: We pull the version history of the incident report from the park’s computer system to see what was deleted after your child was on the way to the hospital.
- Time-Clock Cross-References: We compare the number of jumpers on the floor to the number of monitors clocked in. We frequently find ratios as low as 1:60 when the standard requires 1:32.
- Wayback Machine Waivers: We capture the exact version of the kiosk waiver that was live on the day of your injury before the park can update their terms in the middle of a lawsuit.
- Digital Forensics for Video: If the park claims a camera “didn’t capture” the event, we retain a digital examiner to interrogate the DVR and find out if footage was selectively deleted.
Call us today at 1-888-ATTY-911. We advanced the cost for these discoveries. If your family is dealing with the trauma of a broken child, you deserve an attorney who brings the depth of a federal-court-tested firm to every single local case. Hablamos Español. Lupe Peña is ready to speak with you directly. No fee unless we win.
The Standard of Care: ASTM F2970 vs. EN ISO 23659:2022
You may hear the park manager say, “We meet all industry standards.” The question we ask is: Which industry standard?
In the United States, we rely on ASTM F2970, a voluntary standard the commercial trampoline park industry drafted about itself. It establishes the absolute bare minimum. Meanwhile, in Europe, the International Organization for Standardization published EN ISO 23659:2022—a much stricter, mandatory set of safety requirements that explicitly covers foam pits and airbags.
When we depose the operations manager of a park serving Hickory Creek, we don’t just ask about F2970. We ask why they operating below the international standards used in the rest of the developed world. We ask why their foam pit was compacted past eight inches when the physics of impact required twelve. We know the standards better than they do. That is the Attorney911 advantage.
A Note for our Spanish-Speaking Families in Hickory Creek
Muchas de las víctimas de lesiones en parques de trampolines en Town of Hickory Creek son niños de familias hispanohablantes. Si usted no habla inglés como primer idioma, el parque tiene una obligación legal de asegurar que usted entienda lo que está firmando. Bajo la doctrina de Delfingen US-Texas v. Valenzuela, un waiver en inglés puede ser invalidado si no se le ofreció una traducción o si el personal lo presionó para firmar rápidamente. Nuestro abogado asociado Lupe Peña habla con usted directamente—sin intérpretes. Ella entiende su cultura y sus derechos. Llame al 1-888-ATTY-911 para una consulta gratis.
Final Word: The Preservation Window is Closing
What happens to your child’s case in Town of Hickory Creek will be decided by what gets preserved this week. Every hour you wait is an hour the park uses to clean the court, rotate the foam, and overwrite the hard drives. Our spoliation letter is already prepared for the major chains in Denton and Lewisville.
Twenty-five years of catastrophic injury experience. A federal court admission. A former insurance defense perspective. An active $10 million medical-litigation architecture for rhabdomyolysis cases. We have the moat that other firms lack.
1-888-ATTY-911. 24/7. No fee unless we win. Hablamos Español. The case starts today.
