Your family’s life changed in two seconds. It usually happens on a Saturday afternoon at a facility near US-90 Alt or along the I-69 corridor. You were at a birthday party, perhaps at the Urban Air in Sugar Land or the Altitude nearby, watching your child from the observation rail. The music was loud, the courts were packed, and the teenagers in the neon shirts—the “court monitors”—were mostly looking at their phones or talking to each other.
Then came the sound. Kati Hill, a mother whose story was shared a quarter of a million times on Facebook, described it to ABC News as “the worst scream that you could ever have heard from a child.” Her three-year-old son, Colton, had just suffered a snapped femur during a “Toddler Time” session because the park allowed a larger child to jump on the same bed.
If you are reading this in a hospital waiting room at Texas Children’s Hospital or Memorial Hermann, or if you just brought your child home in a body cast, you probably feel a crushing mix of guilt and uncertainty. You signed the waiver at the kiosk. You saw the rules on the wall. You wonder if this is your fault.
We are here to tell you it is not.
At Attorney911, led by managing partner Ralph Manginello, we have spent 25 years holding corporate defendants accountable. We have litigated against multinational giants like BP and Walmart. We have seen the tactics insurance companies use to minimize catastrophic injuries. One of our attorneys, Lupe Peña, used to sit on the other side of the table—he defended insurance companies and recreational businesses against these exact claims. He knows their playbook because he helped write it. Now, we use that insider knowledge to dismantle their defenses.
Think a signed waiver means you have no case? Think again. In Harris County, 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 mat onto concrete. The waiver was signed. The jury found gross negligence anyway. That is the largest reported jury verdict against a U.S. commercial trampoline park, and it happened right here in our backyard.
What happened to your child in City of Stafford wasn’t an accident. It was the predictable output of a system that puts profit margins ahead of pediatric safety. We know the physics, we know the medicine, and we know how to make them pay.
Why Trampoline Parks in City of Stafford Are Structural Hazards
Commercial trampoline parks are a relatively new industry that has exploded across the Houston metro area. In the last decade, facilities have opened in nearly every corner of Fort Bend County, from Sugar Land to Missouri City and into City of Stafford. But this growth happened in a total regulatory vacuum.
Texas is one of 39 states with no statewide trampoline park safety law. There is no state agency in Austin that inspects these facilities. There is no mandatory injury reporting. The Texas Department of Insurance regulates the “Class B” inflatable rides you see at these parks—the bungee tramps and inflatable obstacle courses—under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2151. But the trampoline decks themselves? They are statutorily excluded.
This means that the Sky Zone, Urban Air, and Altitude parks serving City of Stafford families are essentially self-regulated. They operate under a safety standard called ASTM F2970. This wasn’t a standard written by the government to protect your kids; it was written by the trampoline park industry itself. It is a voluntary floor, and yet, parks in our region routinely fail to meet even that.
ASTM F2970-22 and the international standard EN ISO 23659:2022 both require strict attendant-to-jumper ratios and rigorous age separation. But walk into any park serving City of Stafford on a humid July afternoon, and you will see the reality. You will see 17-year-old employees supervising 60 jumpers at once. You will see 200-pound adults sharing beds with 50-pound children.
When a park ignores these standards to save on labor costs, they are choosing to accept the risk that a child will be catastrophically injured. That isn’t “inherent risk.” That is negligence.
The Physics of the Catastrophe: Why “One Jumper” Is the Only Safe Rule
The most common mechanism of injury we litigate is the “double-bounce.” This is not a freak accident; it is the law of physics acting on developing bodies.
When two people jump on the same trampoline mat, the bed stores elastic potential energy during the compression phase. If a 200-pound adult lands while a 60-pound child is pushing off, the energy stored in the mat transfers directly into the child’s body. According to biomechanical engineers, this energy transfer can multiply the child’s launch force by up to four times.
The child isn’t jumping anymore; they are being launched like a projectile. When they land, their bones—which are not yet fully ossified—simply cannot decelerate that force. This produces what doctors call a “trampoline fracture”—a proximal tibial metaphyseal buckle fracture. In many cases, it leads to a Salter-Harris growth plate injury.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has been warning parents about this for over 25 years. Since 1999, the AAP has stated that trampolines should not be used at home and should only be used in highly supervised professional training environments. Every major manufacturer, from Jumpking to Skywalker and Springfree, knows this. Every park chain, from Sky Zone to Urban Air, knows this. They sell the experience anyway, and then they point to a waiver when the physics they predicted finally shatters a child’s leg.
Who is Responsible for a City of Stafford Trampoline Injury?
When we file a lawsuit in Fort Bend County or Harris County, we don’t just sue the local park. We perform what we call “corporate architecture deep dives.” The entity operating the park in City of Stafford is often a single-location LLC that carries a minimal insurance policy. If we stopped there, our clients wouldn’t get the recovery their children need for a lifetime of care.
We go upstream. The typical defendant stack in our cases includes:
- The Operator LLC: The local business that hires the staff and fails to maintain the equipment.
- The Franchisee: often a multi-unit holding company that owns several locations across Texas.
- The Franchisor: Entities like Sky Zone Franchising LLC or UATP Management LLC (Urban Air). They dictate the rules, perform the audits, and mandate the training. In the Damion Collins case in Kansas, an arbitrator awarded $15.6 million and held the franchisor, UATP Management, responsible for 40% of the fault because of a “systemic failure” to implement safety changes.
- The Corporate Parent: Sky Zone, Inc. (formerly CircusTrix) is parented by Palladium Equity Partners. Urban Air is parented by Unleashed Brands, which was acquired by Seidler Equity Partners in 2023 “amid lawsuits,” as reported by Franchise Times.
- The Manufacturer: If the netting failed, a weld broke, or the foam pit was too shallow, we name the component vendors and equipment manufacturers. In the Matthew Lu case in North Carolina, the climbing wall manufacturer, Ropes Courses, Inc., was named as a defendant after a 12-year-old fell to his death.
We have a proven track record against Fortune 500 companies. Ralph Manginello litigated against BP after the Texas City refinery explosion. The fleet of corporate lawyers representing Sky Zone or Urban Air doesn’t intimidate us. We know how to pierce their liability shields and find the insurance towers that actually hold the money.
Dismantling the Waiver: Why the iPad Isn’t a Wall
The first thing an insurance adjuster will tell you—likely in a “friendly” call within 48 hours of the injury—is that you signed a waiver and therefore have no case.
Don’t believe them. Our associate attorney, Lupe Peña, used to train adjusters on this exact tactic. He knows that the waiver is a speed bump, not a brick wall. In Texas, there are three primary ways we defeat these agreements:
1. The Munoz Doctrine: Parents Cannot Bind Minors
Under the landmark Texas case Munoz v. II Jaz, Inc. (1993), a parent generally cannot sign away a minor child’s right to sue for personal injuries. While you may have waived your own right to bring a claim for medical bills you paid, your child’s separate cause of action for their own pain, suffering, and permanent impairment remains alive. We file these suits on behalf of the child, and the parent’s signature on a kiosk is usually irrelevant to the child’s rights.
2. The Dresser Fair Notice Standard
Texas law is strict about how a release must be presented. Under Dresser Industries v. Page Petroleum, a waiver must be “conspicuous” and meet the “express negligence” doctrine. If the word “negligence” isn’t specifically and clearly used, or if the text was buried in a long click-through on a tablet that you were pressured to sign so your kids could play, the waiver is often legally void.
3. The Gross Negligence Carve-Out
No waiver in America—especially not in Texas—can release a company from liability for its own gross negligence. Gross negligence is “conscious indifference” to a known, extreme risk. If a park knows its foam pit is compacted below the ASTM F2970 depth, or if it has received repeated complaints about a torn slide and doesn’t fix it, that is gross negligence. The $11.485 million Cosmic Jump verdict was built on this exact principle.
The Medical Reality: Catastrophic Pediatric Injuries
If your child was hurt on a trampoline in City of Stafford, you aren’t just dealing with a “broken bone.” You are dealing with pediatric orthopedics and neurology, which are fields of medicine with long-term consequences.
Salter-Harris Growth Plate Fractures
In children, the growth plate (physis) is the weakest part of the skeleton. A fracture that extends through this plate—common in double-bounce impacts—can cause the bone to stop growing or grow crookedly. A six-year-old with a Salter-Harris fracture might not show the full extent of the damage until they hit a growth spurt at age 12. By then, one leg may be measurably shorter than the other. We fight for settlements that account for these future surgeries and lifetime biomechanical issues.
SCIWORA (Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality)
This is a terrifying pediatric phenomenon where a child sustains a permanent spinal cord injury even though their X-rays and CT scans look “normal.” Because children’s spines are so flexible, the cord can be stretched or compressed without breaking a bone. Parks often tell parents their child is “just shaken up” when they have actually suffered a life-altering neurological event.
Vertebral Artery Dissection and Spinal Stroke
As seen in the viral Elle Yona case, doing flips can torque the neck in a way that tears the vertebral artery. This produces an ischemic infarction—a stroke of the spinal cord. It is often initially misdiagnosed as a “panic attack,” delaying critical care.
Rhabdomyolysis: The Under-Recognized Summer Emergency in City of Stafford
Stafford summers are brutal. When you take a child to an indoor trampoline park that is running at 85 degrees with dozens of bodies generating heat, you are placing them in a high-exertion, high-temperature environment.
Extended jumping—especially during the 90-minute or two-hour sessions these parks sell—can trigger exertional rhabdomyolysis. This is the breakdown of muscle tissue that releases a protein called myoglobin into the bloodstream. Myoglobin is toxic to the kidneys.
If your child has spent an afternoon jumping and, 24 hours later, they have dark-brown “cola-colored” urine, severe muscle pain, and extreme fatigue, get them to an ER immediately. This is a medical emergency that can lead to acute kidney failure.
We are uniquely positioned to handle these cases. Our firm is currently litigating a $10 million lawsuit against the University of Houston involving rhabdomyolysis. We have already built the medical expert network and the institutional-accountability framework required for these complex injury claims.
Why 1-888-ATTY-911 Must Be Your First Call
By the time you leave the parking lot of a trampoline park in City of Stafford with an injured child, the park’s risk management team is already working. They aren’t working to help you. They are working to protect the chain.
Surveillance video is overwritten in as little as 7 to 30 days. If you wait to call an attorney, the footage of the monitor looking at his phone while your child was launched off the court will be gone.
Incident reports are “revised.” The first person who writes down what happened might be an honest 16-year-old. After a manager or a corporate risk officer sees it, that report is often refined to blame “guest error.” Our forensic discovery protocol pulls the metadata of those documents to show exactly when and how they were sanitized.
Evidence disappears. The torn padding is replaced. The foam pit is fluffed. The broken spring is thrown in the trash.
When you retain Attorney911, our preservation demand goes out within 24 hours. We demand the DVR hard drive. We demand the time-clock records. We demand the franchisor audit logs. We don’t just “handle” cases; we build them from the ground up for trial.
The Cost of Justice for a City of Stafford Family
We know the financial terror a catastrophic injury brings. The helicopter bills from a Life Flight to the Medical Center. The surgeries. The months of physical therapy.
We work on a contingency fee basis. That means you pay us nothing unless we win. We advance every single cost of the litigation. We pay the biomechanical engineer who reconstructs the bounce. We pay the pediatric orthopedic surgeon who explains the growth plate prognosis. We pay the life-care planner who calculates the $10 million cost of your child’s future.
Your child’s recovery fund stays intact. Our firm takes the risk, because we believe in our ability to hold these companies accountable.
As our client Chad Harris said, “You are NOT just some client to them… You are FAMILY.” We treat every parent standing at an ER bedside with that same level of commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions for City of Stafford Parents
Can I sue if I signed the waiver at the park?
Yes. As discussed, Texas courts have multiple ways to void these waivers, especially when they involve minors or gross negligence. Never assume the paper you signed at a kiosk ends your rights.
How much is a trampoline injury settlement worth?
It depends on the severity. Minor fracture cases with clear liability typically range from $50,000 to $500,000. Catastrophic cases involving TBI or spinal cord injury quickly reach the multi-million dollar range. A life-care plan for a child with a permanent injury often starts at $5 million on its own.
What if my child was hurt at a neighbor’s house in Stafford?
Backyard injuries fall under homeowners’ insurance, but there is a catch: many policies in Texas now exclude trampoline injuries. We look at every layer, including “attractive nuisance” doctrine if your child wandered onto a property that wasn’t properly fenced. We also investigate the manufacturer—if a spring snap or a net failure caused the injury, we bring a product liability claim.
How long does the process take?
We file fast, but building a catastrophic pediatric case takes time. We have to wait for “maximum medical improvement” to know the full extent of the long-term damage. Most cases settle within 18 to 36 months, but we are prepared to go to trial at the 24-month mark if the insurer isn’t being fair.
Do I have to pay to start the case?
No. Zero upfront costs. We advance everything.
Representación Legal en Español con Lupe Peña
Muchas de las familias en Stafford prefieren discutir estos asuntos tan serios en su propio idioma. Nuestro abogado Lupe Peña habla español perfectamente y representa a nuestros clientes directamente, sin traductores. Si usted firmó un documento en inglés y no pudo entenderlo completamente, la doctrina de Delfingen en Texas puede ayudarnos a invalidar ese waiver. No deje que la barrera del idioma sea una ventaja para la compañía de seguros. Llame al 1-888-ATTY-911 hoy mismo.
The Case Starts Today
What happened to your child wasn’t bad luck. It was the result of a system that decided it was cheaper to pay for an occasional injury than to staff their courts properly.
The clock is running. Every day you wait is a day the surveillance video gets closer to disappearing.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. We answer 24/7. Our offices in Houston, Austin, and Beaumont serve families throughout the City of Stafford area and across Texas. Your child’s future is too important to leave to a “friendly” insurance adjuster. Let us fight the corporate giants for you.
Frequently Asked Questions: Protecting Your Family After a Trampoline Injury
What should I do if my child got hurt at a Sky Zone or Urban Air in City of Stafford?
Your first priority is a medical evaluation at a facility capable of handling pediatric trauma, like Texas Children’s Hospital. After that, do not talk to the park’s risk management team. Call us immediately. We need to send a spoliation letter to freeze their surveillance video before it is deleted. Most parks in the Houston area overwrite their footage in 7 to 30 days.
How long do I have to sue a trampoline park in Texas?
For an adult, the statute of limitations is generally two years. For a child, the clock is “tolled” until they turn 18, meaning they have until age 20. However, the evidence clock is much faster. If you wait more than a few months, the witnesses are gone and the video is destroyed.
Can I sue Urban Air if I signed their iPad waiver?
Yes. The Texas Supreme Court is currently examining delegation clauses in these waivers, but several other doctrines protect consumers. Under Munoz, the waiver likely does not bind your child’s claim. We also look for gross negligence, such as understaffing or broken equipment, which no waiver can release.
Is the foam pit at the trampoline park really safe?
Actually, foam pits are one of the most dangerous attractions. The industry has been moving toward airbags because foam cubes compact over time, losing their ability to absorb impact. If your child bottomed out in a foam pit and hit concrete, the park’s failure to maintain proper foam depth is a classic negligence claim.
Why is my child’s headache still happening a week after the jump?
A headache after a trampoline fall is a red flag for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or Post-Concussive Syndrome. Pediatric brains are still developing and take longer to heal. You should seek a second opinion from a pediatric neurologist. We include the cost of these specialists and long-term cognitive testing in our damage calculations.
What happens if the trampoline park says they lost the video of my accident?
When video suddenly goes “missing” or “glitches” at the moment of injury, we pursue spoliation sanctions. In a Georgia case, a jury was told that the park’s surveillance glitched on four separate cameras at once—they awarded the victim $3.5 million. We bring in forensic digital experts to determine if the deletion was intentional.
Should I let the park’s insurance company pay our hospital bill with a “Med-Pay” check?
Be very careful. These checks often come with a release on the back. If you cash that check, you might be signing away your right to a multi-million-dollar recovery for permanent injuries. Never sign anything or cash any “goodwill” check from an adjuster until we have reviewed it.
Why Attorney911 Is the Structural Choice for Stafford Families
We didn’t build our firm to handle small cases. We built it to take on corporate conglomerates and their insurance providers.
- Ralph Manginello brings federal court experience and a quarter-century of trial work.
- Lupe Peña brings the defensive mindset. He knows where the insurance company hides the “excess” policies.
- Our UH Rhabdomyolysis Case means we already have the medical experts on speed-dial who understand exactly how extended exertion on a trampoline can cause kidney failure.
We serve City of Stafford families because we live here. We know the local courts, we know the local pediatric medical systems, and we know exactly how many millions of dollars it takes to care for a child with a growth-plate destruction or a spinal injury over the next 60 years.
The park has lawyers. The manufacturer has lawyers. Their corporate parents have lawyers.
Don’t you think your child should have them too?
Call 1-888-ATTY-911.
Hablamos Español. No fee unless we win.
