Failure to yield is when a driver fail to give right of way to the oncoming vehicle. The right of way law is significant enough to ensure the safety of road users, therefore, when a driver fail to yield, it can lead to many unwanted circumstances such as collision.
When a driver fails to yield, he can be ticketed by the law enforcement agency for not giving right of way to the oncoming traffic. Therefore, the question is, when this ticket is given, how do you dispute it? How do you get a failure to yield ticket dismissed?
You can get a failure to yield ticket dismissed by contacting a lawyer who can help gather all the evidence needed to dispute the ticket. The lawyer should be able to tell you whether you stand a chance of having the ticket dismissed or not considering the level of evidence at your disposal.
Can You Get a Failure to Yield Ticket Dismissed?
Yes, you can get a failure to yield ticket dismissed if you have enough convincing evidence to back up your claims. But it might not be an easy thing to do.
Getting a failure to yield ticket dismissed is not easy especially when it caused a crash. It will be difficult to dismiss such ticket.
For example, if you are supposed to yield to an oncoming traffic when turning left, if you fail to do so and it lead to a crash between you and the oncoming vehicle, it will be difficult if not impossible to have the ticket dismissed because you will not only be given a ticket for failing to yield, you will also be charged as the cause of the accident that occurred.
Therefore, if you wish to have a failure to yield ticket dismissed, then you must ensure that your actions are justifiable with enough evidence to back up your claim.
How to Get a Failure to Yield Ticket Dismissed
To get a failure to yield ticket dismissed, you need to:
1. Gather Your Evidence
Getting a failure to yield ticket dismissed is not as easy as getting a speeding ticket dismissed, you need enough convincing evidence to prove to the judge that your actions were justified.
Moreover, contacting a lawyer is not a first step to take when fighting a failure to yield ticket, gathering your evidence is the first. This is because, even if you contact a lawyer, the lawyer will ask for evidence behind your actions.
It will be difficult to have a failure to yield ticket dismissed with just your words against the law enforcement agency that issued the ticket to you. The judge is likely to believe the words of the police officer than yours. Therefore, you need evidence.
If the reason why you failed to yield is justifiable, for example, if the reason why you did not yield was because it looks like the oncoming vehicle lost control of his vehicle and you’re trying to avoid the vehicle from hitting you, it is reasonable enough to have the ticket dismissed. However, your words enough may not do much.
If you can be able to get other drivers who witnessed the incident to come testify on your behalf, it is better than having your words alone. If they can bring their dash cam recordings, including your dash cam videos, you will definitely get the ticket dismissed.
If you were wrongly ticketed for a failure to yield, you can argue against it. But your words alone cannot do much. Again, the judge is likely to believe the police officer than you. Gathering your evidence before contacting a lawyer should be the first thing to do.
2. Hire a Lawyer
After you’re done gathering your evidence, you can now contact a lawyer, the lawyer should be able to tell you in all honesty, the chances you have on the case.
Since no one likes fighting a battle he cannot win, the lawyer will tell you whether to proceed with the case or pay the fine associated to the ticket to avoid wasting everybody’s time.
These are the best two steps to follow when fighting a failure to yield ticket. However, there are other methods you can use, if you’re lucky enough, the judge may dismiss the ticket. Those method does not always work, but it has worked for some and might work for you. These methods are:
- Ensure to Appear in Court: Appearing in court can help have the ticket dismissed. Many people have given a testimony of how their ticket was dismissed simply because they appeared in court early enough.
- Behave Well: When you appear in court, you should behave well. If the judge finds you amazing, he can dismiss the ticket with advice not to let what happened happen again.
- Dress Well: From the testimonies of people who have had their failure to yield ticket dismissed, if you dress well, wearing a suit or something nice to court, you might find favor in the sight of the judge who may have the ticket dismissed.
- Good Driving Record: If you have a good driving record, you may stand a chance of having the ticket dismissed because of your good driving record. If the reverse is the case, then you will need a proof to argue in your favor.
- Officer Fails to Appear in Court: The judge may dismissed the ticket if the officer that issued the ticket is too busy to appear in court. However, this is likely never to happen. You have to be lucky enough to make this happen.
- Wrong Information on the Ticket: If the officer that issued the ticket made mistakes and wrote wrong information on the ticket, you can use this to your advantage. For example, if the color of your car is red and the officer wrote blue, you can argue with it. The same goes if there are mistakes on your plate number, etc.
However, it’s important to note that failure to yield ticket always stick unless proven otherwise. Even with all the methods above, if you are guilty or the incident caused a crash, there’s nothing you can do to have the ticket dismissed except proven otherwise.
Conclusion
Getting a failure to yield ticket dismissed is possible but not an easy thing to do. You have to have enough evidence to back up your claims and hire a lawyer to represent you in the court.
However, it’s worthy to note that hiring a lawyer is very expensive and may cost you thousands of dollars, therefore if you know that indeed, you failed to yield, there’s no need spending so much on a battle you will not win.
Also, failure to yield ticket can add points to your record and increase your auto insurance rate. Therefore, if you’re certain that you were wrongly ticketed or your actions were justifiable, you should contest the ticket to avoid accumulating points to your driving record.
