Civil Rights Lawyers in Oklahoma

When law enforcement officers violate your constitutional rights — through excessive force, wrongful arrest, illegal search and seizure, or conditions of confinement — federal law (42 U.S.C. § 1983) gives you the right to sue. Section 1983 was enacted during Reconstruction to hold state actors accountable when they deprive citizens of rights guaranteed by the Constitution. These cases are among the most challenging in civil litigation: they involve government defendants with access to taxpayer-funded legal teams, the judicially created doctrine of qualified immunity that shields officers from personal liability, and the high burden of proving a constitutional violation. Our firm embraces these challenges — because holding the government accountable is how the Constitution stays alive.

Oklahoma faces a civil rights crisis in its jails and detention facilities. Since the Oklahoma County Jail Trust assumed operation of the Oklahoma County Detention Center, the facility has seen a dramatic and well-documented surge in detainee deaths, inadequate medical care, understaffing, and unsafe conditions. Our firm has firsthand experience litigating these cases. Whether the violation occurred during an arrest, during booking, or during months of pretrial detention, we understand the federal standards that apply — including the Fourteenth Amendment's due process protections for pretrial detainees and the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment for convicted prisoners.

Qualified immunity is the biggest obstacle in civil rights litigation. Under this doctrine, government officials are shielded from liability unless the plaintiff can show that the official violated a "clearly established" constitutional right — meaning a prior court decision must have addressed sufficiently similar facts. In practice, this means courts dismiss meritorious claims simply because no previous case involved the exact same type of misconduct. Our attorneys know how to navigate qualified immunity: we research prior case law exhaustively, frame the constitutional violation at the appropriate level of generality, and present arguments that overcome this defense. We also pursue entity liability under Monell v. Department of Social Services, targeting unconstitutional policies and customs — not just individual officers.