If I were you, I would also contact the embassy directly, and tell them that the documents are on the way, but due to postal service timescales it may take more than ten days. Don't spin your story out to them, they don't care! If everything goes wrong, remember that EU contract law overrides ParcelForce's terms and conditions. If they promise to do something and fail (and "human error" is no excuse - it's the problem, not the explanation!) then they are responsible by law for the fallout. Saying "No we're not" does not relieve them of that, it just convinces most people not to try claiming. Remember: IANAL, this is just my opinion...

Also, where is the distinction between "loss of income due to the circumstances of the debt" (which appears to be unlimited) and "loss of income due to the court hearing". In this case, they're one and the same.

wow, £50/day... that means I'm going to be out of pocket by over £1000 even if I WIN the case. And I had no option BUT to be out of pocket, from the moment CL opened the case. How is this just? Surely there's some way to go after them for actual losses? If there's no other way to handle this, then suing people who earn more than £100/day for £50 is a no-win situation for the defendant, and that doesn't make any sense to me...

Thanks for the quick reply. Where can I see what this "Practice Direction 27" has to say about my income? Also, the last judge came very close to using the word "unreasonable" in describing CL's behaviour so far. Could this be my saving line here? What would it take for the courts to award me my loss of income on those grounds? (after all, as it stands, the moment CL Finance sued, it was cheaper for me to pay them than to defend, purely in terms of loss of income. That's how small the amount originally was.) Further - CL Finance have been adding all kinds of charges and amounts to the original debt at every step. These seem to have been upheld by the court (the original judgement amount included them). Can I do the same, and charge £10 for every time I've had to contact them?

CL Finance sued me for a debt that was already paid. I paid their claim under duress, then had the judgement set aside, and counter-claimed for the money back. The court has twice now offered the oppinion that I am owed the money back, but have put off the final judgement for another hearing (for various reasons). So I am now waiting for a date for my third hearing. In the meantime, I am losing income each time I have to go to court. The judge has told me that I can't claim this back as "costs". Is there anything I can do to claim back the income I have lost in order to attend court (to defend a case that should not have been brought in the first place!). The case is with the magistrates court, but the judge has been referring to it as "small claims court". Is this correct? (the amount is small, well within small claims amounts, but the case was not brought through the samll claims process) Any advice gratefully received, Rich