In 2023, Humphrey, Farrington & McClain obtained a $15.6 million arbitration award for a young man paralyzed at a trampoline park. He entered under a signed liability waiver. We proved the park knew the attraction was dangerous and put him on it anyway.
Free, confidential case review. Trampoline park litigation is a focus of our practice, not a sideline. We accept a small number of serious cases each year, including referrals from attorneys across the country.
The Collins arbitration. The largest known arbitration award in the United States against a trampoline park, entered on behalf of a client who suffered a spinal cord injury on the Wipeout attraction. The award held the local operator, the franchisor, and the attraction's manufacturer each responsible. And Collins is not our only result: we have handled trampoline park cases in states across the country and collected millions of dollars for injured clients. Read the full account of the case.
Past results afford no guarantee of future results. Every case is different and must be judged on its own merits.
In July 2021, Damion Collins attended a birthday party at a Kansas trampoline park. It was his first visit. Before he entered, the park collected a signed liability waiver, the same document it required of every guest.
Staff opened an attraction called the Wipeout: a set of triangular trampolines surrounding rotating arms that jumpers are supposed to duck under or leap over. No one instructed him on how to use it safely. No one warned him what the park already knew. On that attraction, Damion landed on his neck and was paralyzed from the chest down. The incident was captured on video.
When we signed the case, the park's insurance adjuster came to us first. He sent over the security footage of Damion's injury, told us Damion had been breaking the rules, insisted the fall was his own fault, and warned us about what would happen if we filed. Most attorneys would have closed the file right there. We relied on our experience instead: we took the footage to experts, researched the attraction, and discovered the truth.
Our investigation established that this was not a freak accident. The same attraction had already injured people at another park before it was ever installed at this park. The risk was known to the companies that built it, sold it, and operated it. It was never disclosed to the people jumping on it.
"I conclude that there was a systemic failure to bring necessary information to the patron, and that given the recognized risk of serious injury, the failure to timely implement those changes resulted in the injuries to Mr. Collins."Arbitrator's Award in the Collins arbitration
"Tim picked up my case from my first attorneys due to his knowledge and work with catastrophic injuries from trampolines and such. I cannot say enough good things about him as he provided not only legal information, but also gave a great deal of compassion regarding the struggles I'd been thru physically and how they affected my personal life. He made the legal process tangible and did an incredible job explaining the ins and outs of the case. I could not have asked for better presentation and have been recommending him to friends, family, and colleagues."Andreana Albott · Google review from a trampoline park client · Read the review on Google
Past results afford no guarantee of future results. Every case is different and must be judged on its own merits.
In many situations, yes. A signed waiver does not automatically end a trampoline park injury claim.
Every trampoline park requires a waiver. Parks count on that document to convince injured guests and their families that there is nothing to be done. That is exactly what the document is designed to do, and it is often wrong. Whether a waiver applies depends on state law, the document's language, who signed it, and what actually caused the injury.
A waiver can only cover so much. Courts and arbitrators routinely refuse to let waivers excuse conduct that goes beyond the ordinary risks a guest actually agreed to accept, and many states restrict what a waiver can cover at all, particularly for children. In 2025, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that trampoline park participation agreements signed by one parent were not enforceable against injured minors or non-signing parents in the circumstances before it.
A guest can accept a known risk. A guest cannot accept a hidden one. When a park knows an attraction has hurt people before and says nothing, the waiver does not answer for that silence. That principle was at the center of the Collins case.
Many waivers force injury claims out of the courtroom and into private arbitration, a forum parks believe favors them. The $15.6 million Collins award was entered in arbitration. The forum changed. The evidence did not.
No two of these cases are the same. Every waiver, and the set of facts surrounding it, is different, and the question is rarely a straightforward yes or no on whether the document is valid. The analysis runs through state law, the document's language, who signed it, and what the park knew. That is why experience matters: an attorney who has handled these waivers before, and has a history of defeating them, will see paths through that a general practice will not.
Guide Trampoline park waivers explained: what they say, when they fail, and what to do next →There is no federal safety regulation of trampoline parks, and most states have none either.
Trampoline parks sell an afternoon of harmless family fun. Behind the front counter, many are operated with an eye on cost rather than safety: attractions installed and kept in service despite known injuries, thin staffing, minimal training for the young employees monitoring the courts, and safety information that never reaches the family paying at the door.
The standards that do exist were written largely by the industry itself, and compliance is voluntary. When a park cuts corners, no inspector is coming. The only accountability most parks ever face arrives in the form of a lawsuit.
Increase in emergency room visits from trampoline park injuries between 2014 and 2018, from 6,200 to 19,300 per year.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety CommissionShare of injured trampoline park users whose injuries were classified as significant in a 2024 study of 18 parks published in Pediatrics, with higher injury rates in high-performance and foam pit areas.
Pediatrics, 2024Estimated trampoline-related injuries treated in U.S. emergency rooms each year, including fractures, dislocations, head injuries, and spinal cord injuries.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety CommissionDepending on the facts, responsibility can reach well past the front counter: the local operator, the national franchisor, the attraction's manufacturer, installers, and maintenance contractors.
In the Collins arbitration, the largest share of responsibility was assigned to the national franchisor, not the local franchise. Trampoline park chains are built to keep responsibility at the bottom. We litigated to the top.
A trampoline park case is not a slip and fall with a bounce. The law is contested at every step: waivers drafted to end claims before they begin, arbitration clauses that move the fight into a private forum, and an industry operating with almost no binding regulation to measure conduct against. The facts are just as demanding, because proving one of these cases means understanding how trampoline parks actually operate: the franchise manuals, the inspection and maintenance practices, the staffing and training, and the injury history of the specific attraction involved. Firms that treat them as routine premises cases lose them. We built a practice on the ones nobody else wanted.
National trampoline park brands, including Sky Zone, Urban Air, Get Air, and others, operate through layers of franchisees, management companies, and equipment affiliates. Those layers exist to diffuse responsibility. We have litigated against major park chains and know how to establish what the franchisor knew, what its manuals required, and where the corporate structure actually made the decisions that led to an injury.
Independent operators present different problems: thinner insurance, looser record keeping, and equipment purchased secondhand or installed without manufacturer oversight. We have litigated these cases as well, and we know how to preserve evidence quickly before video is overwritten and maintenance records disappear.
Humphrey, Farrington & McClain has tried cases other firms decline for more than 40 years. We do not run a volume practice. Other trial lawyers regularly send us trampoline park cases, often because no one else will take them. We accept a limited number so that each one gets the investigation it requires: the incident video, the maintenance records, the manufacturer's files, the franchisor's manuals, and the injury history of the specific attraction involved. The cases we accept generally involve serious, lasting harm: spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, fractures requiring surgery, and wrongful death.
These are not hypotheticals and they are not stock photographs. Each image below was taken during our team's inspections of trampoline parks in our cases. Together they show what the conditions behind serious injuries actually look like: exposed structure, failed hardware, and containment that stopped containing.
Photograph them if you can, and contact us before the park fixes the scene and the surveillance video is overwritten.
Call (816) 836-5050 Request a Free Case ReviewIn many situations, yes. A signed waiver does not automatically end a trampoline park injury claim. Courts and arbitrators regularly refuse to let waivers excuse conduct beyond the ordinary risks a guest actually agreed to accept, and many states limit what a waiver can cover, particularly for children. Whether a waiver applies depends on state law, the document's language, who signed it, and what caused the injury.
An arbitration clause changes the forum, not the merits. Serious injury claims can be fully developed and won in arbitration. Our firm's $15.6 million Collins award was entered in arbitration after a full evidentiary proceeding, and arbitration is a specialty of this firm: we have handled more than 1,000 arbitrations since 2020, producing more than $100 million in awards for our clients.
Depending on the facts, responsibility can reach the local operator, the national franchisor, the attraction's manufacturer or seller, installers, and maintenance contractors. In the Collins arbitration, the largest share of responsibility was assigned to the national franchisor, not the local franchise.
Not necessarily. Many states restrict a parent's ability to waive a child's injury claims, and courts have refused to enforce trampoline park agreements against injured minors in a number of circumstances. This is a state-specific question that deserves a case-specific answer.
Get medical care, then act quickly to preserve evidence. Ask the park for its incident report, photograph the attraction and the injuries, identify witnesses, keep the waiver and receipts, and request in writing that the park preserve surveillance video. Some parks keep footage for only a matter of weeks. Once we are retained, we send the preservation demands ourselves, and we know exactly what to ask for. Avoid giving a recorded statement to the park's insurer before speaking with a lawyer.
Deadlines vary by state and by the type of claim, and different rules can apply to claims involving children. Because evidence like surveillance video disappears far faster than any legal deadline, the practical answer is to have the case evaluated as soon as possible.
We handle trampoline park injury cases on a contingent fee basis. You pay no attorney fee unless we obtain a recovery. Clients may remain responsible for case expenses as permitted by applicable rules. The consultation is free and confidential.
Yes. Trampoline park cases are regularly referred to us, often because no one else wants them. We serve as co-counsel and accept referrals from attorneys across the country, and we structure those relationships in compliance with the applicable rules of professional conduct. The most valuable time to involve us is early: bringing us in at the start of a case lets us make sure the park preserves the evidence that matters, from the surveillance video to the inspection and training records. Call Tim Kingsbury at (816) 836-5050.
Case accounts, guides, and updates from our trampoline park practice. New resources are added as our work develops.
How a signed waiver became a $15.6 million arbitration award: the evidence, the forum, and the finding, from the firm that tried it.
Read the account → GuideWhat trampoline park waivers actually say, the five situations where they fail, and why the arbitration clause is not the end.
Read the guide →Trampoline park cases get referred to us for a simple reason: most firms do not want them. They are pushed into arbitration, defended by national counsel, and complicated by waivers, franchise structures, and product liability issues, and they demand an investigation most practices are not built to run. This is our area. We have handled trampoline park cases in states across the country and collected millions of dollars for injured clients.
We regularly work with referring counsel and co-counsel across the country, we structure those relationships in compliance with the applicable rules of professional conduct, and we have paid millions of dollars in fees to co-counsel and referring attorneys. The Collins arbitration is one example of what a fully developed record in these cases can produce. Call Tim Kingsbury at (816) 836-5050 to discuss a case.
If you or a family member was seriously injured at a trampoline park, contact us immediately, before you speak with the park's insurance company and before evidence starts to disappear. Some parks keep surveillance footage for only a matter of weeks. We move fast to put the park on notice and demand preservation of what matters: the incident video, the inspection and maintenance logs, the staffing and training records, the prior incident reports, and the franchisor's file on the attraction. We know what to demand because we have demanded it before.
Humphrey, Farrington & McClain, P.C.
221 W. Lexington Ave., Suite 400
Independence, Missouri 64050
HFMLegal.com
We handle trampoline park injury cases on a contingent fee basis. You pay no attorney fee unless we obtain a recovery. Clients may remain responsible for case expenses as permitted by applicable rules.
Page published September 1, 2026. Last updated September 4, 2026.