“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 Kaitlin Hill, a mother whose world shifted in an instant during a “Toddler Time” session at a park much like the ones serving Forest Hill. Her son Colton was only three. He was in a body cast for months. Kaitlin’s warning, shared a quarter of a million times, ended with words we hear every day in our Tarrant County offices: “We had no idea.”
We are The Manginello Law Firm—Attorney911. We represent families in Forest Hill and across the DFW metroplex who are currently standing where Kaitlin Hill stood. If you are reading this from a hospital bedside at Cook Children’s Medical Center or the emergency department at Medical City Fort Worth, we know what you are feeling. You feel a crushing weight of guilt because you signed the waiver at the kiosk. You feel anger because the attendant was on his phone. And you feel terror about what a growth-plate fracture or a cervical injury means for your child’s next twenty years.
We wrote this guide to tell you what the park manager and the insurance adjuster won’t: this was never an accident. Whether it happened at an Urban Air in Arlington, an Altitude in Fort Worth, or a backyard trampoline off Mansfield Highway, these injuries are the predictable output of business decisions made by parent conglomerates like Sky Zone, Inc. and Unleashed Brands. They count on you believing that a signed piece of paper at the front desk ends your case. It doesn’t.
Since 1998, Ralph Manginello has gone head-to-head with some of the largest corporations in the world, from BP after the Texas City explosion to Walmart and Amazon. Our firm includes attorneys like Lupe Peña, who used to sit on the other side of the table—defending insurance companies and the very same trampoline parks we now sue. He literally wrote the arguments they are using against you right now. In Forest Hill, your family’s recovery depends on knowing how to dismantle those arguments before the surveillance video is overwritten.
What Forest Hill Families Need to Know About the DFW Trampoline Industry
Forest Hill sits at the heart of one of the densest trampoline park markets in the world. With Urban Air headquartered in nearby Grapevine and Altitude Trampoline Park based in Fort Worth, our local neighborhoods are the testing grounds for an industry that is effectively self-regulated. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram investigation documented nearly 500 injury reports at 21 trampoline parks in our immediate area over just seven years.
When you take your children to the Sky Zone on Highway 287 or the Urban Air off I-20, you aren’t just visiting a local gym. You are entering a facility owned by private equity giants. As of January 1, 2023, CircusTrix rebranded as Sky Zone, Inc., backed by Palladium Equity Partners, and now controls the Sky Zone, DEFY, and Rockin’ Jump brands. Urban Air is now a part of Unleashed Brands, acquired by Seidler Equity Partners in early 2023. These entities operate with one goal: throughput. At peak hours on a Saturday afternoon in Tarrant County, the safety standards the industry wrote for itself—ASTM F2970—are the first thing to be sacrificed for profit.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has been clear since 1999, with updates in 2012 and 2019: trampolines do not belong in a recreational setting for children. Yet, as you drive down I-820, you see the billboards promising “Safe Family Fun.” The gap between that marketing and the reality of the trauma bay is where we do our work.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Whether you were injured at a commercial facility or on a defective Jumpking or Skywalker trampoline in a neighbor’s yard, we have the forensic resources and the 25 years of trial experience to hold them accountable. Hablamos Español. No fee unless we win.
The Physics of a Catastrophe: How Trampolines Maim in Seconds
The defense lawyers for parks in Tarrant County always use the same line: “Trampolining is inherently risky.” We counter with the physics. A trampoline bed is a potential energy storage device. It is designed to amplify force, but it is not designed to control it.
The Double-Bounce Energy Transfer
The most common mechanism of injury we see in Forest Hill cases is the double-bounce. When a 200-pound adult lands on the mat at the same moment a 60-pound child is pushing off, the energy transfer multiplies the child’s launch force by up to 4x. The child isn’t just jumping; they are being catapulted by an adult the park failed to separate from them. ASTM F2970 requires parks to enforce age and weight separation because this physics is known. When a monitor allows an adult and child on the same bed, the park has chosen to ignore a known life-altering hazard.
The Foam Pit Trap
Foam pits look like harmless clouds of polyurethane. In reality, they are one of the highest-catastrophe attractions in the industry. The Ty Thomasson case in 2012 proved that a shallow foam pit—recorded at just 2’8″ deep instead of the required depth—can snap five vertebrae in a single landing. We see cervical axial loading and SCIWORA (Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality) cases where the head wedges between foam cubes and stops instantly while the body’s momentum continues. This is why the industry is pivoting to airbags, but many parks in Texas still operate old, compacted foam pits to avoid the capital expense of an upgrade.
The Failure of Adjunct Attractions
Trampoline parks are now “Adventure Parks.” They feature Sky Rider ziplines, climbing walls, and ninja courses. On June 27, 2023, a six-year-old girl was strangled by a Sky Rider cord in Georgia—a mechanism that has repeated across the Urban Air chain. In Sugar Land, the Lakhani family’s 14-year-old daughter fell 30 feet from a climbing wall because an attendant failed to attach the safety line. These are not “inherent risks.” These are systemic training failures.
If your child is suffering from a comminuted fracture or a traumatic brain injury because of these mechanisms, you need more than a lawyer; you need a team that can quote ASTM provision Section 10 from memory. That is who we are.
The Texas Legal Battle: Why the Waiver Isn’t a Wall
The first thing the insurance adjuster will tell you is that you signed a waiver. They want you to believe the case is over before it begins. In Texas, we have the most sophisticated waiver-defeat playbook in the country.
The Gross Negligence Carve-Out
In Harris County, a jury awarded $11.485 million against Cosmic Jump after a teenager fell through a torn slide onto concrete. The waiver was signed. The jury found gross negligence anyway. Under Texas law and the Moriel standard, a waiver cannot release a defendant from gross negligence—meaning a conscious indifference to an extreme degree of risk. A park that ignores a tear in a mat or operates with half the required monitors is operating in a state of gross negligence.
The Munoz Rule and Minor Rights
For parents in Forest Hill, this is the most important legal fact: Under Munoz v. II Jaz, Inc., a parent in Texas generally cannot sign away a minor child’s personal injury claim. Your signature might bar your own claims for medical bills, but it does not extinguish the child’s right to be made whole for a lifetime of impairment. Even after the 2025 Texas Supreme Court ruling in Cerna v. Pearland Urban Air, which enforced arbitration delegation clauses, the underlying right to recovery is not gone. It has simply changed venues.
The Delfingen Spanish-Language Defeat
Texas is approximately 40% Hispanic. In Forest Hill and the surrounding Fort Worth neighborhoods, many families speak Spanish as their primary language. If the park handed you an English-only iPad and pressured you to “scan and sign” so the kids could play, the waiver may be void. The Delfingen US-Texas v. Valenzuela doctrine allows us to challenge contracts where there was no meaningful “meeting of the minds” due to a language barrier. Lupe Peña at our firm handles these cases natively, ensuring that the insurance company can’t use a language gap as a liability shield.
Waiver law is a chess match. Lupe Peña used to play for the other side; now he plays for you. Call 1-888-ATTY-911 today for a free evaluation of the document you signed.
Pediatric Injuries: The Medicine the Adjuster Hides
A “broken leg” at age seven is not a broken leg. It is a potential decade of orthopedic nightmare. At Attorney911, we don’t just look at the ER bill; we look at the life-care plan.
Salter-Harris Growth-Plate Fractures
Children’s bones grow from cartilaginous zones called physes. A trampoline impact often causes a Salter-Harris fracture. If that growth plate is destroyed, the bone may stop growing or grow at an angle. A child injured at age nine might not show the full extent of the damage until age fourteen, when one leg is three inches shorter than the other. This requires corrective osteotomy—a brutal surgical process of breaking and resetting the bone.
SCIWORA and Cervical Trauma
Children have flexible spines but fragile spinal cords. SCIWORA means the cord is injured even when the X-ray looks normal. A child in a Forest Hill ER might be sent home with “neck strain” only to be paralyzed twelve hours later. We work with pediatric neurologists who understand this physiology and can testify to the park’s failure to recognize the emergency.
The UH Rhabdomyolysis Bridge
We are currently litigating a $10 million lawsuit against the University of Houston involving rhabdomyolysis—the breakdown of muscle tissue that poison’s the kidneys. We see this exact pathology in trampoline park cases. If your child jumped and then developed tea-colored urine, profound muscle pain, and listlessness, they are in a medical emergency. The heat of North Texas trampoline parks in July, combined with the extreme exertion of a two-hour party, is a recipe for acute kidney failure. We have the medical expert network from our UH case ready to apply to your child’s recovery.
Our firm has recovered multi-million dollar settlements for traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. As client Donald Wilcox said, “One company said they would not accept my case. Then I got a call from Manginello… I got a call to come pick up this handsome check.” We don’t fear the complex medicine; we master it.
The Evidence Clock: Why Forest Hill Families Must Act in 48 Hours
The moment your child is loaded into an ambulance at an Urban Air or Altitude park, the park’s risk management team is already at work—not to help you, but to protect their investors at Palladium or Seidler Equity.
The 7-to-30-Day Overwrite
Most trampoline park DVR systems in Tarrant County are set to overwrite footage every 7 to 14 days. If you wait for the cast to come off before calling a lawyer, the video of the attendant on his phone is gone forever. We send a formal spoliation letter via certified mail within 24 hours of being retained. We demand the preservation of the DVR hard drive, the kiosk audit logs, and the incident report metadata.
The Incident Report “Revision”
The incident report you saw at the park is often not the one that ends up in the insurance file. Internal systems allow managers to “clarify” reports days later, often shifting blame to the “guest error.” Our forensic discovery protocol pulls the edit history of these documents. We find the original version that the park tried to hide.
The Staff Turnover Problem
Trampoline park staff turn over at a rate of 130% to 150% annually. The teenager who saw what happened will be working at a different job in three months. We use private investigators to find ex-employees immediately. They are often willing to tell the truth once they are no longer dependent on the park for a paycheck.
Don’t let the evidence evaporate while you’re focused on surgery. Let us handle the park while you handle your child. Call 1-888-ATTY-911. The clock is running.
The Corporate Stack: Who Is Really Responsible?
“Sky Zone” is not a single company you can just serve with papers. It is a layered liability shield.
- The Operator LLC: This is the shell company that owns the specific Forest Hill-area location. It is usually undercapitalized.
- The Franchisee: The local owner who may own 3-5 parks.
- The Franchisor: Sky Zone Franchising LLC or UATP Management LLC. They dictate the rules but claim “no control” when someone gets hurt.
- The Parent conglomerate: Sky Zone, Inc. or Unleashed Brands.
- The Private Equity Sponsor: The billionaire funds that demand the staffing cuts that lead to the accidents.
We have litigated against multi-national corporations like BP. We know how to pierce these shells. In the Damion Collins case, the franchisor UATP Management was held responsible for 40% of a $15.6M award. We follow the money upstream to the deepest pockets.
Frequently Asked Questions for Forest Hill Parents
Is my child’s case barred because I signed the waiver on an iPad?
In Texas, almost certainly not. Kiosk waivers often fail the Dresser conspicuousness test. Furthermore, under the Munoz rule, you cannot waive your child’s internal right to sue for their own injuries. We attack these waivers on five different legal vectors the moment we take a case.
Does the park have to give me the video of the accident?
They will tell you they don’t. That is why we file suit or send an immediate preservation demand. If they destroy video after receiving our letter, we ask the judge for an “adverse inference” instruction—basically telling the jury to assume the video proved the park was guilty.
How much does a trampoline injury settlement worth in Texas?
Every case is different, but the anchors are clear. The $11.485M Cosmic Jump verdict is the ceiling for TBI. Serious fracture cases with a life-care plan for growth-plate damage typically range from $500,000 to $2,000,000. Permanent spinal injuries can reach $15,000,000 or more. We calculate the “hidden” damages—like increased life insurance premiums and lost athletic scholarships—that other firms miss.
What if my child was hurt at a neighbor’s house in Forest Hill?
This falls under “attractive nuisance.” Texas holds homeowners responsible for having dangerous equipment like a trampoline if it isn’t fenced and secured. We look for homeowners’ insurance endorsements or umbrella policies that cover these accidents. Most importantly, we also look at the manufacturer like Jumpking or Skywalker for design defects like poor netting or weld failures.
Why should I hire Attorney911 instead of a local TV lawyer?
The big TV firms are volume shops. They want to settle your case for the first $50,000 the insurance company offers. We are a catastrophic-practice firm. We build every case for a seven-figure outcome from day one and handles it personally. As Chad Harris said, “You are NOT a pest to them and you are NOT just some client… You are FAMILY to them.”
Why We Fight for Tarrant County Families
Forest Hill is a community of hardworking parents who deserve a safe place to take their kids on a Saturday. When these national chains move into our corner of Texas, they accept a duty of care. They collect your money, they make your children wear their branded socks, and then they ignore the ASTM safety floor to hit a margin target.
We don’t accept that. We don’t accept the “freak accident” excuse. And we certainly don’t accept the “you signed a waiver” threat.
If your child is in a body cast, if your teen can’t feel their toes, or if you are facing a life of dialysis after rhabdomyolysis, you need the firm that is currently winning these fights. We have the $10 million expertise, the 25 years of trial history, and the insider defense knowledge to win.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911).
Free Consultation. No Fee Unless We Win.
Hablamos Español. Lupe Peña está lista para ayudarle.
Our Forest Hill area representation is handled from our Houston base with local counsel association where needed, bringing national-level authority to your neighborhood park.
Los Niños y la Seguridad en Texas
Si su familia fue víctima de una negligencia en un parque de trampolines, no deje que el miedo al estatus migratorio o la barrera del idioma le impida buscar justicia. Los derechos de un niño lesionado en Texas son sagrados, independientemente de quién sea el padre o qué idioma hable. Bajo la ley de Texas, usted tiene derecho a una representación que hable su idioma. Lupe Peña hablará con usted hoy mismo. No somos simplemente abogados; somos defensores de la comunidad hispana en Tarrant County.
What happened to your child at an Urban Air or Sky Zone wasn’t an accident—it was the predictable output of a system. The AAP has been warning since 1999. ASTM F2970 was written by the trampoline park industry itself to establish a safety floor. The park chose to operate below that floor. The waiver was drafted by lawyers who knew it wouldn’t hold. The surveillance was engineered to overwrite before you could get help.
Attorney911 was built for exactly this fight. Ralph Manginello brings 25+ years of catastrophic injury experience. Lupe Peña used to defend these businesses from the inside—he knows which holes are in their waivers. Our Tarrant County knowledge is matched only by our national authority.
The case is decided by what gets preserved this week. If you wait, the Saturday afternoon of your child’s injury disappears from the DVR. The attendant transfers. The foam pit is refilled. The incident report is “updated.”
Call 1-888-ATTY-911 now. No fee unless we win. We advance every expense—the biomechanist, the pediatric specialist, the life-care planner. Your child’s recovery fund stays intact. The case starts today.
