At the end of the extension period, if the appellant still has not obtained the required documentation or made a further application to the court, the papers must be put before the judge for his direction. The appellant must be informed that this is being done. If the appellant states at the outset that he cannot comply with the requirements over documents, he should be asked to put forward his reasons, in writing, with his appellant's notice or within 7 days of its issue. It is not a matter open to oral debate at the counter. The appeal may however be issued to prevent the appellant being out of time.
Special arrangements apply to obtaining a suitable record of the judgment.
The normal rule is that where the judgment has been officially recorded, an approved transcript should be obtained. There are however currently delays in some cases in obtaining transcripts from county courts, through no fault of the appellant. If in such cases the appellant has been unable to obtain the transcript after extensions totalling 28 days, despite his requesting it at an early stage, the papers should be put before the judge for him to decide whether it is necessary to wait for the transcript or whether one of the alternatives listed in PD 5.12, for example a note of the judgment, is sufficient. Litigants in person who were unrepresented in the lower court will generally have to obtain a note of judgment from an advocate for the respondent. Appellants should be told, when they request an initial extension for obtaining a transcript, that if they think it unlikely that they will obtain the transcript within 28 days, they should try to obtain a note of judgment straight away so that it is available to the judge to enable him to consider whether the transcript is essential or whether the note of judgment is sufficient for him to make a substantive decision.