Description

Chalmers & Guest provides the definitive guide to the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 and the Cheques Act 1957, and offers legal practitioners comprehensive guidance to the law and practice relating to bills of exchange, cheques and promissory notes.

Offers comprehensive guidance on the law and practice relating to bills of exchange, cheques and promissory notes
Provides a section by section commentary to the primary legislation, the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 and the Cheques Act 1957
Explains in detail what provisions the legislation contains, and provides opinion and guidance on how to comply
Presents a selection of precedents to assist the reader in communications as well as court proceedings
Illustrates common situations where problems may arise, and works through the legal consequence
Covers legal capacity for entering into a payment contract
Addresses consideration, and how the rules governing it diverge from contract law
Considers how bills may be transferred from one person to anther
Sets out the general duties of the holder, including the necessary steps to fix the maturity of the instrument
Identifies the liabilities of the parties
Looks at discharge of a bill, including circumstances where payment is insufficient to discharge the bill
Details the law governing lost, destroyed or split bills as well as crossed cheques
Examines the applicable law where parties are based in different jurisdictions, and conflict of laws
Reflects the changes introduced by Small Business, enterprise and Employment Act 2015 on bills of exchange and cheques: in particular the changes concerning electronic payment of bills
Major changes detailed in the new 19th edition include:

The Electronic Trade Documentation Act 2023, which creates a new (and entirely separate) mechanism for creating and transferring electronic bills of exchange and which deems electronic bills of exchange which circulate on an electronic trade platform to be equivalent to paper bills
The cessation of paper cheque clearing and the adoption of the Image Clearing System (ICS) by Pay.UK, which saw all cheques being cleared as images
Important new cases, includingTeva Canada Ltd. v. TD Canada Trust
Considers the position in Philipp v Barclays Bank UK as regards cheques