Pull Over, Please: What to Do When the Police Stop You

Aluin Gilchrist is a Vancouver-based Canadian government civil
litigation lawyer.

Former policeman Brian Lawrie is in the business of appearing as agent for defendants in Toronto traffic court. Ian McLean is a lawyer. This is a do-it-yourself book on when and how to fight a traffic ticket, written very carefully and with refreshing clarity. A layman who has read it will at least have learned a lot about what it is that good counsel do to earn their fees.

Counsels of perfection can be annoying. On page 55: “You should make careful note of [police] evidence. If you are going to effectively cross-examine on what was said, you must know what was said.” If taking a carefully written note would make it harder to pay attention to what a witness is saying (and deciding what to do about it), one might be better advised to be prepared to make notes, preferably written, of things that will need attention later on.

Stephen Harrison’s Fight That Ticket (North Vancouver: International Self Counsel Press, 1984) is in its revised sixth edition, comes in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. editions, and takes a more down-to-earth approach.