Prince William County Failure to Yield Lawyer

A failure to yield accident occurs when one of the involved parties does not yield to the other on the road when they had a legal requirement to do so. A Prince William County failure to yield accident lawyer can help determine fault in these cases and seek appropriate compensation for their client.

Determining Fault

Depending on how an accident happens, it can be hard to determine who is at fault in a failure to yield accident. If both people enter an intersection at the same time, then it would be difficult to establish who failed to yield. If one person had a yield sign and the other person didn’t, then it would be more easy to establish who was meant to yield. Essentially, what is supposed to happen is that anyone who is supposed to yield to oncoming traffic must yield for as long as it takes until it is safe to enter the intersection or to merge into another lane. Some people are more impatient than others and decide to yield only for a few seconds and then go regardless of what happened hoping that the other people will yield for them.

However, in those cases, the person who does that will probably be found to be at least somewhat contributory negligent to their accident, so it depends on the situation. It could be clear cut, but it could also be complicated depending upon the circumstances of how the accident happened.

Dealing with Insurance Companies 

A failure to yield would be an example of someone’s negligent use and operation of a motor vehicle, so a person can claim that an insurance carrier’s insured driver failed to yield, and that can be used as an example of negligence against them. This is treated as any other negligent behavior.

How a Prince William County Lawyer Can Help

Typically, if the police have arrived at the scene and a failure to yield was an issue, the police will decide who was supposed to yield and who had the right of way. If someone is ticketed for failure to yield, that is the easiest way to figure out if someone failed to yield. Though being issued a ticket does not guarantee civil liability, it is often a good indicator.

Otherwise, a failure to yield accident attorney in Prince William County will have to take each person’s version of the accident and see if it logically makes sense based upon where the cars came to rest and any other physical evidence, be it photographs, or where the damage of the car is, or any video surveillance of the accident itself, either from the cameras of either cars involved, from the cameras in the traffic light, or from the cameras of any nearby buildings that may have captured the accident.

Benefits of Law Firm v. Solo Practitioner

A law firm has more resources than a solo practitioner. A law firm has more people that can help someone with their case. For example, if a solo practitioner gets tied up in a trial, then they might not be able to fully handle the rest of their cases, but if the lawyer from a law firm has a trial, then someone else in the law firm could substitute in or help out to help push the case forward instead of delaying it unnecessarily.