Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

No. The fact that you did not sign it will really not make any difference. And largely for that reason, the police officer has no basis for requiring you to sign it and cannot issue a warrant to make you come sign it. This would be the same as if you refused to sign it while on the road.

Your signature on the ticket only acknowledges that you actually received the ticket. Without your signature, the police officer would have to testify that he gave you the ticket.

Obviously, that would be very easy for him to do. The details that he copied down from your driver's license on to the ticket would be persuasive proof that he looked at your driver's license while issuing you the ticket. Your photograph on the driver's license (which they COULD pull from DMV if they needed to) would leave little doubt that it was you.

So your signature on the ticket really does not make much difference.

Also, if it was NOT you, then having the person identified on the driver's license (NOT YOU, let's say) be required to come sign the ticket really would not help anything. If someone were using someone else's driver's license, then trying to force the person named on the drivers license to come and sign the ticket would FAIL to solve the problem.

It may be that the police officer has not processed your ticket BELIEVING that it has to be signed. Perhaps the police department's internal procedures require a signature.

I would normally suggest using any procedural defect possible to defeat a criminal charge.

However, as I described above I don't think it would be very hard for the prosecutor to prove you received the ticket. The Deputy only has to testify that he gave it to you, and the Court will believe him.

I don't think there is any legal basis for the police officer to get a bench warrant.

But I think that if you don't show up, you will be easily convicted in your absence. If you are not there, then no one will be there to raise any objection.

Instead, I think you need to focus on defeating the charges.

Often if you can fix the suspension before your Court date, then the judge will dismiss the charges anyway. There are ways to defeat a suspended license charge. I think you should focus there.

Obviously you shoudl get th ehelp of a attorney on that.