Consumer Credit Law and Practice - a Guide, 3rd edition

The only book to give full coverage of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 as updated and amended, this is the most useful single volume on this subject. It covers all aspects of consumer credit and consumer hire, contract terms, credit products, security instruments, procedures, practical problems and regulatory controls. Written in a clear and penetrating style, this book draws on the author's long experience as a practising solicitor specialising in this area.

Detailed coverage of new case law and legislation
Extensively updated and rewitten, this new edition takes into account all relevant case law and legislative changes and developments, including:

• The numerous changes introduced by the Consumer Credit Act 2006 as updated and amended
• The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations
• The Distance Marketing Regulations
• The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations

It also contains useful information on the credit industry, including statistical details on credit and debit cards, licences and fraud.

Wide-ranging advice at your fingertips
With this book you will quickly and easily find the answers you need, whether you are examining:

• The documentation required for advertisements and agreements
• The effect of the statutory provisions on multiple agreements
• The new statutory provisions governing default
• The rules governing ancillary credit businesses
• Issues relating to electronic communications
• The impact of the new EU Directive on Consumer Credit

This is essential reading for everyone who has to grapple with UK legislation governing credit, hire and ancillary credit business.

Reviews:

Consumer Credit Law has historically been a complex and interesting area of law. Unfortunately, it is commonly misunderstood. The Consumer Credit Act 1974, which intended to make this area of law simpler, is nearly two hundred sections long and commonly avoided by practitioners and students alike. Fortunately, Dennis Rosenthal's Consumer Credit Law and Practice - A Guide provides an excellent flashlight for anyone interested in this area of law.

Written by a leading consumer credit lawyer, Denis Rosenthal, this extremely welcome third edition incorporates all of the recent changes resulting from the gradual amendment of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 by the Consumer Credit Act 2006. The material is written in an enjoyable and engaging way and combining this with the author’s extensive experience means the issues are comprehensively, coherently and lucidly dealt with. Consumer Credit Law and Practice - A Guide also includes an excellent index, allowing the reader to quickly locate the relevant section, and is divided into manageable sections meaning points are quickly understood.

For anyone interested in this engaging area of law, there are few guides to the legislation. Consumer Credit Law and Practice - A Guide allows experienced lawyers to double check quick points and more inexperienced readers (like junior lawyers, students or consumers) to quickly understand the legislative framework. For example, the author considers in superb detail the topical issues of enforceability of consumer credit and hire agreements. To further help the reader's understanding, the author breaks the material down into small segments and make excellent use of bullet and numbered paragraphs.

Like previous editions, Rosenthal clearly sets out the key principles referring the reader, where appropriate, to the important authorities. For example, the author considers the decision in Branwhite v Worcester Works Finance Company [1969] 1 AC 552, which established that in a unregulated credit agreement the supplying dealer will not ordinarily be the finance company’s agent. He then considers the important (but often overlooked) decision in Lease Management Services v Purnell Secretarial Services [1994] CCLR 127 where the court decided that the finance company could be the supplier’s agent, but only where the agreement used by a finance company for leasing purposes misled the customer to believe they were leasing the equipment from the supplier rather than the finance company. This analysis is excellent.

Consumer Credit Law and Practice - A Guide achieves its aim of providing a clear explanation of consumer credit law with considerable ease. It provides an excellent account of the legislative framework and is written in a logical and engaging way. Whilst its price has increased substantially from the previous paperback edition (this new edition is a hardback), it remains an ideal text for anyone studying, practising or interested in this fascinating area of law.

Reviewed on 12 November 2008

Student Law Journal