What Works: Sign your ticket! Some people think if you don’t sign, you can somehow avoid paying, or by signing you are admitting guilt. Your signature is only a promise to take care of the ticket with the court.  If you don’t sign, officers can just take you to jail, and you’ll have to wait hours or days to see a judge before you can get out. And if the officer says in his report that you were being a jerk by not signing the citation, your attorneys job will become much more difficult later on.

What Works: Defendants win less than 1% of traffic cases that go to court. So the best chance of avoiding a ticket is in the 60 seconds after being stopped. If the officer goes back to his car it’s too late. Saying, “I know you could give me a ticket,” and then pleading for mercy works 100 times better than arguing.  This way, you’re not admitting guilt, but you are showing the officer you respect his authority, and that can pay off in cases like these.  (This only applies to traffic tickets, not other criminal cases!)