Anthony acts as both an Adjudicator and counsel in statutory and contractual adjudications across a wide range of disputes.

Unlike litigation or any other dispute resolution process Adjudication procedure is wholly in the hands of a high speed referee in that it is a 28 day time frame that will dictate this process. The process is both inquisitorial and adversarial. The adjudicator can be amongst other things an engineer, architect, quantity surveyor or a lawyer.

  • Section 108 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 gives a statutory right for either party to a construction contract, at any time, to refer disputes to adjudication.
  • The adjudication procedure is intended to deal with all manners of disputes arising under the contract, including delays, additional cost claims, variations, valuation of work, defective work and the like.
  • The Act provides a very tight timetable:
  • The adjudicator must be appointed within seven days of a party referring the matter to adjudication.
  • The adjudicator must reach a decision within 28 days of referral although an extra 14 days may be allowed if the referring party agrees. It may only be further adjourned by consent of both parties.
  • A referring party will normally have the luxury of carefully preparing its case for submission before sending off the referral notice, whereas the responding party may not have the luxury of time to respond.

Considering the timetable the responding party may receive the referring party’s detailed claim and have a period of probably no more than 14 days, and in some cases less, to respond.

If the Responding Party fails to respond the adjudicator has the jurisdiction to make an award in its absence.

The adjudicator’s decision is binding until overturned by the courts or arbitration, in the meantime the parties must comply with the decision and make any payments as directed.