I have received a CCJ claim against myself from a past employer. I have responded to the letter on-line giving me 28days instead of 14, but I need more time to build a defence. The ressone for extra time is for information I never recived from my employer while with them. I have followed the ICO procedure under the data protection act for gaining this information, but it will take up to 40days to get back. Can I ask for more time from the court to do this as it is crusial to my counter claim.

Somebody opened an account in my name and extracted just under 5K. Instead of involving the police the bank, which I will call GnatAntiEast, decided to remedy their mistake by suing me. Following the advice on this site, which I have found very useful, I put in a CPR 31.14 request for the agreement. They offered to agree to extend the period for defence submission by 2 weeks AFTER I had the agreement. My questions are: Does the defence period for submission deadline have an absolute maximum and if so what is it? Would the court agree to a contingent extension? Does the agreement returned have to have identity evidence that may have accompanied its original submission? Can CPR 18 be used to expand details from the agreement while the track is undecided? Especially in a case like mine, most of the evidence lies with the claimant, and usually in the small claims court, forcing disclosure is not an option. I noticed some discussion of 'Directions' as a proxy for disclosure at the Allocation of track stage. How successful has that proved to be? If 'Directions' prove not to be an option has anyone found using a counterclaim of defamation ( for > 5K) or harassment a useful tactic? Finally some more general questions: The chequebook/credit card/debit card was not delivered to my address. Is the bank so incompetent to permit collect of these items from the bank branch or have them delivered to some other address? If the post office was used to redirect mail is there a database listing such diversions? I have reported this to the police. The problem is that they do not regard me as an injured party and frankly didn't seem that interested. I told the bank I had reported the matter, giving crime number and contact details but they had the brass neck to came back saying that they had phoned but the police weren't getting back to them! My feeling is that they fancy their chances with 'on the balance of probabilities' rather then 'beyond reasonable doubt'. I did start the SAR route but as it is an identity theft case I do not have the correct signature. As I do not intend to give them id data that would bolster their case I am considering a notary. However if I end up in the small claims track I believe they can refuse to divulge data; additionally they can delay for 40 days. I had no communication with the bank until letters demanding payment.