Tennessee Failure to Yield Lawyer

A failure to yield is a right of way case. That is where, under Tennessee Traffic Law, it is determined who can go first or have control of the lane in various driving situations.

For instance, it is common that the first person to come to the stop is allowed to go through that four-way stop first, and once they do that and have control of the intersection, if someone pulls out and hits them, that would be failure to yield.

If you have been injured in such an accident, it is crucial to acquire legal representation as soon as possible. A Tennessee failure to yield lawyer will be able to gather all the necessary evidence to begin mounting a strong case.

Determining Right of Way

Right of way means a person has legal control of the roadway intersection. If an individual knows they have the right of way, then they know if someone hits them while they are in the right of way or pulls up in front of them, then that will be a failure to yield.

Complexity of the Case

The most common problem or complication in a failure to yield case is people remembering or seeing things different when they have a right of way or failure to yield case. For instance, two people may both sincerely believe that they have arrived at the stop sign first and enter the intersection first, and therefore had their right of way and the other person failed to yield.

Those kinds of cases can be very complicated unless a Tennessee failure to yield lawyer consults with an independent witness that can testify to who actually had the right of way.

Common Fact Patterns

The most common fact pattern of a failure to yield collision is when an individual comes to a four-way stop and does not realize that the other person already had a right of way in that intersection. A Tennessee failure to yield lawyer can assist an individual in determining who exactly had the right of way in these cases.

Further, there are many failures to yields when somebody is making a left turn without realizing that an oncoming vehicle was too close. What will happen is that person will make a left turn, believed that they have enough time to make that turn safely when they do not recall the oncoming vehicle was too close, and get into an accident.

There are also many failure to yields at a T-intersection where somebody may be coming on to a highway or interstate from a side road and will turn into the path of a car that is on that highway or interstate legally that has the right of way. They do so thinking they have enough time, or they do not look before they pull out of the roadway and then fail to yield to the car with a right of way.

Determining Liability

An individual is going to have to go to the scene or look at the report and see if there are any road signs that may have controlled those situations, such as traffic lights. A Tennessee failure to yield attorney will look at who those signs and traffic signals gave the right of way to, and whether their client and other person obeyed those signals or not to determine liability.

The presence of road signs depends on where a person is. If the accident happens in downtown Nashville, for example, a person is likely going to have road signs. However, if it is a smaller town, there are less road signs and traffic signals. An experienced Tennessee failure to yield lawyer can help an individual determine what sort of signs and signals were relevant to the accident.

Role of Insurance Companies

Insurance companies can sometimes be difficult to work with after a failure to yield collision in Tennessee. They will look at the scene, and based upon the laws of Tennessee, the road signs or traffic signals that were present, and any witness statements or physical statements that they obtained, can make a judgment on the action. Those determine which car has the right of way and whether there was a failure to yield to a right of way.

Benefits of an Attorney

Tennessee failure to yield attorneys, like the automobile insurance companies, will get their investigator in office and will talk to witnesses, look at physical evidence, and will see where the cars struck each other.

A lawyer will determine whether it was a side impact or direct impact, they will see perhaps if there was any traffic cameras or photographs and videos of the scene, and put all that evidence together to determine who was at fault.

If a person works with a law firm, they will have more resources at their disposal and staff that can help an individual gain a settlement. A person wants those resources and focus so the evidence can be obtained and be preserved. If there needs to be an expert hired, a law firm has the resources to fund those experts.

These cases can be very expensive, so a person wants to make sure they have a law firm that is big enough to pay for the cases that move forward. Lastly, a person wants to make sure they have enough Tennessee failure to yield lawyers and staff that can make sure the case is worked up correctly.