A Practical Province-by-Province Guide to Fighting Radar, Lidar, DUI & Traffic Court in Canada
Beating the Ticket by Richard Harlan — a practical, province-by-province Canadian guide to fighting radar, lidar, DUI and traffic-court charges, and disputing tickets with confidence.
Beating the Ticket is a practical, province-by-province Canadian guide to fighting traffic tickets — from speeding and radar/lidar charges to distracted-driving and impaired-driving (DUI) allegations — and to representing yourself effectively in traffic court.
It demystifies the technology and the process: how police radar and lidar actually work and where they can be challenged, how disclosure requests work, how to read the officer's notes, and how to build and present a defence. It is written for ordinary drivers, not lawyers, with clear procedures for each province and territory.
Whether you want to beat a speeding ticket, fight a radar charge or simply understand your rights on the roadside and in the courtroom, this guide gives you a clear, step-by-step playbook for disputing a ticket with confidence.
The premise of Beating the Ticket is that most drivers lose before they begin — not in court, but at the kitchen table, by paying the fine without ever seeing the evidence. Harlan's answer is procedural rather than rhetorical: request disclosure, read the officer's notes, check the calibration records, and find out whether the case against you is actually complete. The province-by-province structure is what makes it usable, because traffic procedure is provincial and generic advice fails precisely on that point. Notably, the book tells readers when to stop self-representing and hire a lawyer — a line most guides in this genre blur.
— Editorial assessment, The Information Station
The book's central insight is that traffic cases are won by reading the file, not by clever argument. Disclosure — the officer's notes, calibration records, operator certification — is where the weaknesses become visible.
Deadlines, forms, dispute options and the office you write to differ across Canada. What works in Ontario does not work in Alberta, and the book is structured around that reality.
The Doppler principle, beam width, the cosine effect, and lidar sweep error are explained accurately — including where each favours the driver and where it does not.
Concrete guidance on questioning device calibration, operator training, and target identification — the three links every speed reading depends on.
On impaired driving the book is unambiguous: the stakes are criminal, and it says to retain counsel rather than self-represent.
Fines are set to make contesting feel not worth it. The book surfaces the deferred cost — demerit points and insurance premiums compounding over years — that makes the calculation look very different.
No legal background assumed. The procedures are laid out as steps a non-lawyer can actually follow.
Distracted driving, careless driving and impaired-driving charges each get treatment, rather than the book being a speeding-ticket manual with a broad title.
Read the book? Your honest review helps other readers find it.
All Editorial Reviews →Yes — tickets are dismissed routinely, and often on procedural or evidentiary grounds rather than on the question of whether you were speeding. Beating the Ticket shows you how to request disclosure, identify defects in the Crown's case, and present a defence in traffic court as a self-represented driver.
Radar measures speed using the Doppler shift of a reflected radio signal; lidar uses timed pulses of infrared light against a much narrower target. Both have documented limitations — and both depend on correct calibration, correct operator training, and correct deployment. The guide explains the technology and exactly where each of those dependencies can be challenged.
Disclosure is the evidence the prosecution must provide you — typically the officer's notes, device calibration records, and operator certification. It is the single most powerful tool available to a self-represented driver, because it is where the weaknesses in the case become visible. The guide explains how to request it and how to read it.
Yes — it is organised province by province, because traffic procedure, deadlines, forms, and dispute options differ meaningfully across Canada. What works in Ontario is not what works in Alberta or British Columbia.
For impaired driving, generally yes — the stakes are criminal, not merely financial, and the guide says so plainly. It explains how DUI charges work and what to expect, but it is explicit that a criminal charge warrants qualified legal counsel rather than self-representation.
