Consumer Debt Recovery – Assignation, Rejection and Sanction

About the talk:

This talk will focus on the enforcing assigned consumer debts – in light of the recent Guidi case where the Inner House discussed what had to be lodged and proven to succeed in these actions (and dismissed a lot of byzantine technical arguments that were being run to try and avoid liability).

It wll also look at Consumer Rights Act cases involving cars where the SAC just produced a surprising decision called King v Black Horse that suggest if a consumer purports to reject a vehicle but the trader refuses to accept the rejection, then the consumer still has to physically reject the car, never use it again, stop paying their car finance (thereby defaulting), cancel their insurance etc – or they’re liable to summary decree against them in a consumer rights act case. 

Finally, it will also briefly examine sanction for counsel in these kind of cases – which, as the arguments about why the debtor should avoid liability become increasingly complex and convoluted, will often come into play – and the “new” rules still don’t seem to be very well understood about when you have to apply, on what grounds etc.

About the speaker - Michael Way (Ampersand Advocates):  

Michael called to the bar in 2019. His principle areas of practice are public & administrative law, commercial disputes and civil liberties/human rights. He was listed as a ‘Rising Star’ in the 2021/22 Legal 500 in both Commercial Disputes and Administrative and Public Law. 

Since 2015, Michael has tutored at the University of Edinburgh (Jurisprudence; Critical Legal Thinking) and was previously a guest lecturer in Business Law at Queen Margaret University. He was the research assistant to Lady Poole and Sheriffs McCartney and Drummond on their recent book A Practical Guide to Public Law Litigation in Scotland.