Chalmers and Guest on Bills of Exchange and Cheques 18e

This 18th edition of Chalmers & Guest provides an annotated guide to the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 and the Cheques Act 1957 and offers legal practitioners comprehensive guidance to the to the law and practice relating to bills of exchange, cheques and promissory notes.

The 18th Edition

1. Offers comprehensive guidance to the to the law and practice relating to bills of exchange, cheques and promissory notes
2. Sets out the relevant legislation, principally the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, section-by-section to explain in detail what the legislation says and to provide opinion and guidance on how to comply with its terms
3. Offers frequent illustrations to describe common situations where a legal problem might arise, i.e. the book presents the reader with a scenario and works through the legal consequences.
4. Deals with the legal capacity to enter into a contract
5. Explains how consideration is required, and how the rules around consideration vary from the normal rules of contract law
6. Covers the ability to transfer a bill from one person to another
7. Goes through the general duties of the holder, such as what a holder must do to fix maturity of the instrument
8. Sets out the liabilities of Parties and answers questions about who has to pay and who can be sued
9. Deals with the effect of discharge and the circumstances where payment is not sufficient to discharge the bill 
10. Considers acceptance and payment for honour, addressing the circumstances where the bill isn’t accepted or where the acceptor becomes insolvent
11. Examines what happens when a bill is lost or destroyed
12. Addresses the law where bills are split into parts
13. Explains the applicable rules where the parties to a bill come from different countries
14. Describer what a cheque is and the main exceptions where the Act does not apply to cheques
15. Deals with crossed cheques 
16. Looks at the law relating to Promissory Notes rather than orders
17. Goes through a variety of general rules, e.g. good faith, computation of time, signature/company seals, bankruptcy
18. Looks at the protection of bankers paying unindorsed or irregularly indorsed cheques, the rights of bankers collecting cheques not indorsed by holders, and unindorsed cheques as evidence of payment 
19. Covers conflict of laws
20. Offers frequent illustrations to describe common situations where a legal problem might arise by presenting a scenario and working through the legal consequences
21. Refers to case law throughout to support statements and guidance
22. Reflects changes introduced by Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 on bills of exchange and cheques- specifically related to electronic payment of bill
23. Reflects provisions specific to Northern Ireland
24. Presents a selection of precedent material for use in communications and court proceedings