Florida Trampoline Accident Lawyer

Florida Law and Trampoline Injury Claims: A State-Specific Snapshot

Florida treats most trampoline injuries as a negligence question. If you were hurt, a negligence claim would ask whether someone owed you a duty of reasonable care, whether that duty was breached, whether the breach caused your injury, and what harm resulted. None of those is presumed: a fall, a collision or a fracture does not by itself show that anyone was careless.

Three Florida rules shape almost every trampoline claim. The first is time. Section 95.11 of the Florida Statutes lists, under the heading "WITHIN TWO YEARS," "An action founded on negligence." Under section 95.031 of the Florida Statutes, "a cause of action accrues when the last element constituting the cause of action occurs," which is when that period generally begins.

The second is shared fault. Section 768.81 of the Florida Statutes reduces an award by the injured person's share of fault, but in a negligence action to which the section applies, a party "found to be greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover any damages."

The third is paperwork: many Florida parks ask patrons to accept a participation agreement, and a Florida appeals court has addressed what one such agreement did.

What is at stake is whether a claim exists at all, whether it is still timely, and where it would be heard. Other states set different rules, and none carries into Florida. A person sorting through an injury may weigh which of these three rules touches their situation first, and a conversation with an attorney can help map the facts against each.

Trampoline Park and Backyard Trampoline Scenarios Under Florida Law

Where the injury happened often decides which legal theory fits. At a commercial trampoline park, the questions usually center on premises liability, the responsibility of whoever controls a property for conditions on it, such as how courts, padding, springs, foam pits and walls were kept up, and on negligent supervision, meaning whether staff watched and managed jumpers with reasonable care. Whether a duty existed and was breached in a given park depends on what happened there.

A backyard trampoline raises different questions. If the mat tore, a frame weld gave way or a net failed, the claim may be one in product liability. Section 95.11 of the Florida Statutes sets a four-year period for "an action for injury to a person founded on the design, manufacture, distribution, or sale of personal property that is not permanently incorporated in an improvement to real property, including fixtures." A homeowner's care of the yard and equipment can raise premises questions as well.

Open land is a third setting. Section 375.251 of the Florida Statutes provides that an owner or lessee who provides the public with an area for outdoor recreational purposes "owes no duty of care to keep that area safe." That limit applies "only if no charge is made for entry to or use of the area for outdoor recreational purposes and no other revenue is derived from patronage of the area," with an allowance for concession or special-event revenue used "exclusively to maintain, manage, and improve" the area. The statute does not relieve liability "for deliberate, willful, or malicious injury to persons or property."

For an injured person, the setting can change both the theory and the deadline: a park claim and a product claim run on different clocks. Useful first questions are where the injury happened, whether entry was paid for, and whether equipment failed, and an attorney can help sort which theory those answers point toward.

When More Than One Party Controlled the Trampoline, the Property or the Product

Responsibility follows control, and each kind of party is measured against different duties.

A park or facility operator controls the building, the courts, the staffing and the rules, so questions about equipment, padding, layout and supervision point toward the operator's conduct.

If the trampoline, a net, a spring or another component failed, the manufacturer, distributor or seller may be involved. That kind of claim rests on "the design, manufacture, distribution, or sale of personal property" under section 95.11, and section 95.031 sets its own clock, discussed below. It asks whether the product was defective and whether the defect caused the harm; an accident alone establishes neither.

A property owner may be involved where the trampoline sat in a backyard or on private land, subject to the section 375.251 limits described above. A government body may be involved where a public agency or local government ran the facility, which brings in separate written-claim rules covered in the deadlines section.

What is at stake is that naming the wrong party, or missing one, can mean the wrong evidence and the wrong deadline. For a family, mapping who was in charge of the equipment, the supervision and the property is often a first step, and an attorney can help confirm that map. For more, see our page on trampoline park injury claims.

What a Release or Participation Agreement Does and Does Not Decide in Florida

A participation agreement often holds two parts: a release, meaning a promise not to hold the park responsible, and an arbitration clause, meaning an agreement to resolve disputes before a private arbitrator rather than in court.

On July 11, 2025, the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal decided Case No. 5D2024-1487, involving the agreement an adult patron accepted at an Urban Air trampoline park. The opinion notes that a court considering a motion to compel arbitration looks at whether a valid written agreement to arbitrate exists, whether an arbitrable issue exists and whether the right to arbitration was waived, and states that "the sole issue in this appeal is whether an arbitrable issue exists." The agreement defined its activities to include "use of any portion of the Premises." The court found "a significant relationship" between the claims and the agreement, held that the clause "unambiguously requires claims of personal injury alleged to have been sustained on Urban Air's premises to be subjected to arbitration," and reversed and remanded "for entry of an order compelling arbitration." The opinion states it is "not final until disposition of any timely and authorized motion."

That decision answered where the claim would be heard. It did not decide whether the release barred the claim or whether the claim had merit, and it is not a finding that the park did anything wrong. Whether a parent's signature binds a child is governed by Florida law, and this decision, involving an adult, does not answer it.

If you accepted an agreement, its exact words decide what it covers. People in this position often locate a copy and ask whether it contains a release, an arbitration clause or both; an attorney can help read what it does and does not reach. Our page on trampoline park waivers explains how the two parts differ.

Filing Deadlines and the Statute of Repose That Apply to Florida Claims

A statute of limitations is the period the law allows for starting a lawsuit, and an action started too late can be barred. Whether a particular deadline has run depends on the facts.

Negligence: section 95.11 sets two years for "an action founded on negligence," and under section 95.031 a cause of action accrues "when the last element constituting the cause of action occurs."

Wrongful death: section 95.11 also sets two years for "an action for wrongful death."

Product claims: an action for products liability under section 95.11(3) runs "from the date that the facts giving rise to the cause of action were discovered, or should have been discovered with the exercise of due diligence." Section 95.031 also sets a statute of repose, an outer limit that runs regardless of discovery: for a product "with an expected useful life of 10 years or less," no action may be brought if the harm was caused by use of the product "more than 12 years after delivery of the product to its first purchaser." Products other than those in categories the statute lists separately "are conclusively presumed to have an expected useful life of 10 years or less." The repose period "does not apply if the claimant was exposed to or used the product within the repose period, but an injury caused by such exposure or use did not manifest itself until after expiration of the repose period."

Minors: section 95.051 of the Florida Statutes tolls, or pauses, the period for "the minority" of the person entitled to sue only "during any period of time in which a parent, guardian, or guardian ad litem does not exist, has an interest adverse to the minor," or is adjudicated incapacitated to sue. "In any event, the action must be begun within 7 years after the act, event, or occurrence." No other disability tolls a period except as that section, section 95.091, the Florida Probate Code or the Florida Guardianship Law provides.

Government facilities: under section 768.28 of the Florida Statutes, an action may not be started against the state or its agencies or subdivisions unless the claimant presents the claim in writing to the appropriate agency and, except for a municipality, county or the Florida Space Authority, to the Department of Financial Services, "within 3 years after such claim accrues," and the claim is denied in writing. For wrongful death, the claim goes to the Department of Financial Services "within 2 years after the claim accrues." The statute lists further exceptions.

Someone weighing these periods may note the injury date, whether a product or a public facility was involved, and, for a product, when it was first delivered. An attorney can help work out which clock applies and when it started.

Comparative Fault and What It Means When You Were Also on the Trampoline

Was the flip too ambitious, or were too many people on one court? Because the injured person was taking part, that question comes up in almost every trampoline case.

Section 768.81 of the Florida Statutes provides that in a negligence action, "contributory fault chargeable to the claimant diminishes proportionately the amount awarded as economic and noneconomic damages," subject to one limit: "any party found to be greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover any damages." If more than one party shares responsibility for your injury, each one answers for its own share rather than the whole: the court enters judgment "against each party liable on the basis of such party's percentage of fault and not on the basis of the doctrine of joint and several liability." The section does not apply to an action based on an intentional tort, and the 50 percent bar does not apply to personal injury or wrongful death arising out of medical negligence.

How a jumper's choices will be characterized depends on the park's rules and how they were posted and enforced, the jumper's age, what staff saw, and how the equipment was set up. The 2025 decision addressed only arbitration, not fault. Someone in this position may think through those facts, including any posted rules or witnesses to the jump, and an attorney can help assess how fault might be divided.

Records That Help Show What Happened on the Trampoline

Evidence is how each element of a claim is shown or disproved, and which records matter depends on the theory. If you were hurt, the records that usually matter include medical records from the first visit onward, any incident report completed at the facility, photos and video of the court, padding, equipment and injury, and witnesses' names and contact details, including other parents and staff. For a head injury, see our page on trampoline head injuries.

In a park case, the participation agreement itself is often key, since its wording decides what it covers, as the 2025 decision shows; families often keep a copy or screenshot of what was accepted and when. In a product claim, the trampoline or component itself can matter, along with the receipt or order history, the model and assembly instructions, and the first delivery date, which bears on the 12-year repose period in section 95.031. Our page on foam pit injuries covers that setting.

What is at stake is that records lost early can be hard to replace, and a missing delivery date or agreement can leave a deadline or coverage question unanswered. Gathering what exists and noting what is missing is often a practical next step, and an attorney can help identify which records matter for the theory involved.

Wrongful Death After a Florida Trampoline Accident

In Florida, a wrongful death claim replaces the injured person's own claim rather than adding to it. Section 768.20 of the Florida Statutes provides that "the action shall be brought by the decedent's personal representative, who shall recover for the benefit of the decedent's survivors and estate all damages, as specified in this act, caused by the injury resulting in death." When a personal injury results in death, "no action for the personal injury shall survive, and any such action pending at the time of death shall abate." If the person responsible has died, that person's personal representative is the defendant. What damages include depends on the Florida Wrongful Death Act's current text and on who the survivors are.

The period is the two years section 95.11 sets for "an action for wrongful death." Section 768.20 allows a defense that would bar or reduce a survivor's recovery to be asserted against that survivor, "but shall not affect the recovery of any other survivor," and section 768.81's fault rules apply in a negligence action to which that section applies.

A family weighing who should serve as personal representative, which survivors the Act covers and how the deadlines fit together can request a case evaluation to talk through how Florida's wrongful death framework applies to what happened.