One bounce. One bad landing. One broken neck. That is all it takes for a family’s life to change forever at a trampoline park.
At a facility in Fort Worth, a seven-year-old child came off a court on a stretcher while the operation’s manager handed the parents a clipboard instead of calling 911. We have seen this pattern too many times. We know the terror of the parent standing at a hospital gurney in a Fort Worth trauma bay, watching a surgeon explain that a growth plate has been destroyed. We represent families who hear that “worst scream you could ever hear from a child,” as Kati Hill told ABC News after her three-year-old son Colton suffered a broken femur at a park. Her warning was shared 240,000 times because it resonates with the fear every parent feels when the fun stops and the sirens start.
If your child was injured at a trampoline park or on a backyard trampoline in Fort Worth, what you do in the next 7 days will determine whether your case survives. The trampoline industry is a multi-million-dollar machine designed to shield itself from accountability. From the headquarters of Urban Air in Grapevine and Altitude Trampoline Park in Fort Worth, corporate lawyers have drafted waivers and protocols designed to make you believe you have no rights. They are wrong.
Attorney911 was built for this fight. Our managing partner, Ralph Manginello, brings 25 plus years of courtroom experience to every case, including high-stakes litigation against Fortune 500 companies like BP, Walmart, and Amazon. Our associate attorney, Lupe Peña, provides a strategic edge most firms cannot match: he used to represent the insurance companies and recreational businesses defending these exact claims. He knows which waiver clauses are airtight and which ones are full of holes under Texas law. We don’t just handle personal injury cases; we dismantle corporate defenses.
Call us 24/7 at 1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. Lupe Peña habla con usted directamente—sin intérpretes. We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we win. We advance every expense for the biomechanical engineers, pediatric specialists, and ASTM-certification experts required to prove your case. Your child’s recovery fund stays intact while we fight to hold the negligent parties accountable.
What Happened: The Physics and Standards of Trampoline Injuries in Fort Worth
When your child is airborne at an Urban Air or a Sky Zone in Fort Worth, they are not just playing; they are interacting with high-velocity physics and mechanical systems that must be rigorously maintained. When those systems fail, the results are catastrophic.
The Double-Bounce: A Physics Trap
The most common and devastating mechanism of injury is the double-bounce. This happens when two jumpers occupy the same trampoline bed out of phase. When a 200-pound adult lands while a 60-pound child is pushing off, the kinetic energy transfer multiplies the child’s launch force by up to 4x. The child isn’t jumping anymore; they are being catapulted. This is why ASTM F2970 requires parks to operationalize age and weight separation. When a park in Fort Worth ignores these ratios to maximize Saturday afternoon revenue, they are gambling with your child’s skeleton.
Broken Standards: ASTM F2970 vs. EN ISO 23659:2022
The industry operates under ASTM F2970, a voluntary standard the trampoline park industry actually wrote for itself. We can cite these provisions from memory: the attendant-to-jumper ratios, the foam pit depth requirements, and the necessity of age-segregated jumping zones. While ASTM F2970 is the floor in the United States, Europe operates under EN ISO 23659:2022, a mandatory standard that is much stricter. We use the international standard to show Fort Worth juries that the “industry standard” Sky Zone or DEFY claims to follow is actually a low bar the rest of the developed world treats as a dangerous ceiling.
The Foam Pit Illusion
Foam pits in Fort Worth parks look like soft clouds of safety. In reality, they are one of the highest-catastrophe attractions. If the foam blocks have compacted—meaning they haven’t been rotated or replaced according to maintenance logs—a jumper can bottom out and strike the concrete floor beneath. This axial loading is the primary cause of cervical spine injuries and paralysis. We know the history of these defects, including the tragic 2012 death of Ty Thomasson at a Phoenix park where the foam pit was only 2 feet 8 inches deep instead of the recommended 6 feet. His mother, Maureen Kerley, fought for “Ty’s Law” to regulate the industry. In Texas, we still lack those mandatory protections, which is why aggressive litigation is the only tool for local change.
Surveillance “Glitches” and Evidentiary Urgency
Park surveillance DVRs in Fort Worth typically overwrite footage in 7 to 30 days. We have seen cases like Mathew Knight’s in Georgia, where a jury awarded $3.5 million because the park’s cameras “glitched” on four different angles at the exact moment of the injury. We don’t accept these coincidences. Our spoliation letter goes out within 24 hours of your retention. We demand the DVR hard drive, the access logs, and a sworn affidavit from the IT administrator. We preserve the truth before the park’s risk management team can sanitize the record.
If you have been told the incident was just an accident, don’t believe it. Most injuries are the predictable output of a business decision to cut staff or skip maintenance. Call 1-888-ATTY-911 to protect the evidence that proves it.
The Liability Stack: Who is Responsible for a Fort Worth Trampoline Accident?
Identifying the responsible party is more complex than just naming the park on the sign. Trampoline parks in Fort Worth operate under a layered corporate structure designed to hide the money and shield the deep pockets from your family. We perform corporate archaeology on every case to find the real path to recovery.
1. The Operator LLC
The local entity running the Sky Zone or Urban Air in Fort Worth is usually a single-member LLC. These are often undercapitalized and carry primary general liability (CGL) policies that won’t cover a catastrophic spinal or brain injury. We start here, but we don’t stop here.
2. The Franchisee and Franchisor
Most Fort Worth locations are franchises. The franchisor (such as Sky Zone Franchising LLC or UATP Management LLC) imposes the operational standards and training requirements. When they fail to enforce their own safety manual at a Fort Worth location, they are liable. The Damion Collins case in Kansas resulted in a $15.6 million arbitration award where the franchisor, UATP Management, was held responsible for 40% of the fault due to systemic safety failures. We use the Collins precedent to pierce the “we only license the brand” defense.
3. The Parent Company and Private Equity
Beyond the franchisor sits the corporate parent. Sky Zone, Inc. (formerly CircusTrix LLC) is backed by Palladium Equity Partners. Urban Air is owned by Unleashed Brands, which was acquired by Seidler Equity Partners in 2023. These billion-dollar firms approve the budget cuts and staffing ratios that endanger children in Fort Worth. Our experience litigating against Fortune 500 companies like BP and Walmart means we aren’t intimidated by their fleets of corporate lawyers.
4. Component Manufacturers
In backyard cases, we target manufacturers like Jumpking, Skywalker, or Springfree. In park cases, we look at the vendors who supplied the defective mats, the unpadded frame bolts, or the failed harness systems on climbing walls. Ropes Courses, Inc., for example, was a co-defendant in the Matthew Lu wrongful death case in Gastonia, NC, after his harness wasn’t properly secured.
5. Landlords and Property Owners
If an injury occurs in the parking lot or a common area of a Fort Worth shopping center, the property owner may share premises liability. We pull the master leases to see if the landlord was on notice of the park’s safety violations.
In Texas, we also utilize specific pleading hooks like the Class B inflatable ride statutes under the Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2151. While the main trampoline decks are often excluded from state regulation, the bungee tramps, Sky Riders, and inflatable obstacle courses are NOT. These require annual TDI inspections and $1 million in insurance per occurrence. We subpoena these records to prove the operator knew the safety requirements and chose to bypass them.
For 25 plus years, Ralph Manginello has been making defendants pay what they owe. Whether it is a franchisee in Fort Worth or a private equity group in New York, we hold every layer of the stack accountable. Call us at 888-ATTY-911 for a free case evaluation.
The Waiver Fallacy: Why You Can Still Sue in Texas
The most common lie told to Fort Worth parents is that the signed waiver at the kiosk ends their case. This is false. A waiver is not a wall; it is often just noise. In Texas, we have specific legal weapons to dismantle these agreements.
Gross Negligence Defeats the Waiver
No state in America, including Texas, enforces a waiver for gross negligence. Under the Texas Supreme Court’s Moriel standard, gross negligence is defined as an act involving an extreme degree of risk with the defendant’s actual subjective awareness of that risk. The Cosmic Jump verdict in Harris County ($11.485 million) proves that when a park knows about a tear in a mat and fails to fix it, the waiver is voided. If an attendant at a Fort Worth park was on their phone while your child was launched into a concrete wall, that is gross negligence.
The Parental Indemnity Barrier
In Texas, the landmark case Munoz v. II Jaz Inc. established that a parent cannot sign away a minor child’s personal cause of action. While the parent’s own claims for medical bills might be limited, the child’s right to seek justice for their own suffering survives. We represent the child. We represent the minor who never consented to a teenager’s negligence.
Conspicuousness and Fair Notice
Texas law follows the Dresser doctrine. For a release of future negligence to be enforceable, it must be “conspicuous.” If the language was buried in a twenty-page click-through on a tablet at a busy Fort Worth check-in counter, it likely fails the test. Our associate attorney, Lupe Peña, previously drafted these waivers for insurance companies. He knows exactly where the flaws are and how to exploit them to get your case in front of a jury.
Bilingual Formation and the Delfingen Doctrine
Many families in Fort Worth speak Spanish as their primary language. If you were presented with an English-only iPad waiver and pressured to sign quickly so the kids could jump, that waiver may be invalid. We use the Delfingen doctrine to argue that a contract cannot be formed when the party couldn’t read the terms. Hablamos Español. Llame al 1-888-ATTY-911.
The waiver is the insurance company’s opening move. Our move is to take it apart. Don’t let a piece of paper stop you from calling an attorney.
Catastrophic Injuries: What Parents in Fort Worth Need to Know
A trampoline injury in Fort Worth is rarely a simple “broken bone.” We have seen pediatric biology interact with these high-velocity impacts in ways that produce lifelong disabilities.
Salter-Harris: The Silent Growth Plate Injury
Children’s bones are not fully ossified; they have growth plates (physes) that are weaker than the surrounding ligaments. A Salter-Harris Type II fracture at age eight may not show a limb-length discrepancy until age thirteen. By the time you notice one leg is shorter than the other, the trampoline park’s insurance company has already closed the file. This is why we retain pediatric orthopedic consultants immediately to project these damages for a Fort Worth jury.
SCIWORA: Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality
This is a terrifying pediatric phenomenon. A child can sustain a catastrophic spinal cord injury that doesn’t show up on a standard CT scan. The pediatric spine is pliable enough to stretch without fracturing the bone, while the cord inside suffers permanent damage. A child who is misdiagnosed with a “stiff neck” in a Fort Worth ER and sent home can find themselves paralyzed six hours later. We know the medicine, and we know how to document it.
The Rhabdomyolysis Bridge
We are currently litigating a $10 million lawsuit against the University of Houston involving rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney failure. This muscle breakdown occurs when high-intensity jumping is combined with heat and dehydration—a common Saturday scenario in Fort Worth indoor parks. If your child has “cola-colored” urine, listlessness, or severe muscle pain 24 hours after a jump session, they are in a medical emergency. Go to the ER at Cook Children’s or a similar trauma center immediately and ask for a CK blood test. Then call us.
Vertebral Artery Dissection
The 2024 AJR report “Pediatric Trampoline Injuries Head to Toe” highlighted the risk of vertebral artery dissection—a spinal-cord stroke often misdiagnosed as an anxiety attack. This was the mechanism in the viral Elle Yona case that received 27 million views. A failed flip can torque the neck, tearing the artery and causing a stroke in a teenager.
We represent the parent at the bedside. We calculate the cost of the next seventy years of care, not just the next seven days. Learn more in our video guide: “The Ultimate Guide to Brain Injury Lawsuits” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYAHi5aiEQ.
Evidence Preservation: The 48-Hour Fort Worth Protocol
Evidence in a Fort Worth trampoline case is engineered to disappear. If you wait for the park to “do the right thing,” you will lose your case.
- The 24-Hour Spoliation Letter: We send a certified demand to the park, the franchisor, and the insurer to freeze all evidence. We name the specific documents: the daily inspection logs, the attendant shift schedules, and the original incident reports before they are “finalized” (revised) on their computer systems.
- Forensic Video Retrieval: We don’t just ask for the clip they want to show. We demand the entire DVR. We look for the “Mathew Knight” pattern where cameras conveniently fail at the moment of impact. We use tools like FTK Imager and Magnet AXIOM to recover deleted or overwritten frames.
- The Ex-Employee Audit: Fort Worth trampoline park monitors have a 130-150% annual turnover. The teenager who saw what happened probably doesn’t work there anymore. We find them through LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and state L&I records to get the truth before they are coached by defense counsel.
- Scene Documentation: Our investigators are on-site at the Fort Worth facility within 48 hours to photograph the padding, measure foam pit depths, and document signage that may be removed after a serious injury.
Every minute the park delays a 911 call is a minute the surveillance gets closer to overwriting. We file fast to stop the clock.
Backyard Trampolines and Homeowner Liability in Fort Worth
While the big chains draw the most attention, backyard trampolines cause the majority of ER visits in Fort Worth. These cases offer a different path to recovery.
The Attractive Nuisance Doctrine
If a neighbor’s child in a Fort Worth suburb wandered onto an unfenced trampoline and got hurt, Texas law applies the “attractive nuisance” doctrine. Homeowners have a duty to secure hazardous conditions that are foreseeable “magnets” for children who cannot appreciate the risk.
Homeowners Insurance Exclusions
Most Fort Worth homeowners’ policies exclude trampoline injuries. However, we dive deep into the insurance tower. Often an umbrella policy will cover the loss even when the primary policy excludes it. We also target manufacturers like Hedstrom or Skywalker when the frame welds fail or the UV-degraded netting tears.
Product Liability: The SEGMART Factor
In 2026, the CPSC recalled SEGMART toddler trampolines for strangulation hazards. We monitor these recalls daily. If a defective product caused your child’s injury in Fort Worth, we sue the manufacturer under strict liability. We don’t need to prove who messed up—just that the product was dangerous as sold.
Why Hire Attorney911 for a Fort Worth Case?
Most personal injury firms treat a trampoline case like a slip-and-fall. We don’t. We built our entire practice architecture around these specific catastrophic fights.
- FEDERAL COURT ADMISSION: Ralph Manginello is admitted to the Southern District of Texas, providing the authority required for complex multi-state litigation.
- INSIDER KNOWLEDGE: Lupe Peña knows the defense script. He knows which insurance adjusters are authorized to settle and which ones are just stalling.
- MEDICALLY DRIVEN: Our $10M UH rhabdo case means we have a world-class network of nephrologists, neurologists, and pediatric orthopedic surgeons ready for your case.
- BATTLE TESTED: We have fought BP, Walmart, and Amazon. The parent companies of Sky Zone and Urban Air do not scare us.
As client Angel Walle said, “They solved in a couple of months what others did nothing about in two years.” We move with speed and precision because we know what is at stake for your child.
Frequently Asked Questions in Fort Worth
Can I sue if I signed the waiver at Urban Air in Fort Worth?
Yes. In Texas, waivers are vulnerable on multiple fronts, especially for minors. Munoz v. II Jaz says a parent cannot waive a child’s claim. Additionally, if the park was grossly negligent—violating ASTM F2970 standards for staffing or maintenance—the waiver is generally unenforceable.
My kid’s head injury seems minor, should I still go to the ER?
Absolutely. Many pediatric TBIs and SCIWORA cases have a “lucid interval” where the child appears fine before hitting a rapid neurologic decline. In Fort Worth, we recommend immediate Level 1 pediatric trauma evaluation at a facility like Cook Children’s.
What is the average settlement for a child’s broken leg at a trampoline park?
There is no “average,” but we anchor our demands in the $500K to $2M range for pediatric fractures that involve growth plate damage. Catastrophic spinal or brain injuries can reach the $10M to $25M range due to life-care planning needs.
How do I prove the attendant was on their phone?
We subpoena the employee’s cell phone records and the park’s overhead surveillance. We also canvass other parents at the park who may have captured the attendant’s distraction on their own social media.
What if the park manager told us not to call 911?
This is a documented industry tactic to downplay injuries and prevent a public record. We treat this as evidence of gross negligence. If the park refused to call, and you had to do it yourself, that record is admissible in court to show the park’s conscious indifference to your child’s safety.
Will I be blamed for letting my kid jump?
Texas is a modified 51% comparative fault state. However, per the “Eggshell Plaintiff” doctrine, parks take patrons as they find them. A child under seven is generally presumed incapable of negligence. We frame the case where it belongs: on the park’s failure to maintain a safe environment.
24/7 Accountability: Call 1-888-ATTY-911
What happened to your child at a Fort Worth trampoline park wasn’t an accident—it was the predictable output of a business culture that prioritized throughput over protection. The AAP has been warning about these hazards since 1999. The industry wrote ASTM F2970 and then chose to ignore it. The corporate parent engineered the surveillance to overwrite before you could find a lawyer.
We were built for this fight. Ralph Manginello brings 25 years of federal and catastrophic experience. Lupe Peña brings the former-defense playbook. Our offices in Houston, Austin, and Beaumont serve as the launch point for a nationwide authority in trampoline litigation.
Your child’s case is decided by what gets preserved this week. Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. No fee unless we win. Our spoliation letter goes out within 24 hours of your retention. The case starts today.
