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This edition of the newsletter, in keeping with the season of festive indulgence, brings you a number extra-large helpings of food for thought : we hope you will think of it in terms of being a delicate dispute resolution tasting menu of varied delights!
This is my fourth article on the basics of adjudication.
Adjudication is now a dispute resolution process that most in the UK construction industry are familiar with. The process was introduced by the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, which became effective from May 1998. We have therefore lived with it for almost 15 years.
As Nicholas Gould has already observed elsewhere in this newsletter, at present adjudication is not available in the Middle East and as a result dispute boards have become popular on construction projects in the region.
The decision of Akenhead J in Parkwood Leisure Limited v Laing O’Rourke Wales & West Limited [2013] EWHC 2665 will be of particular interest to members of the Adjudication Society as it placed collateral warranties on the adjudication radar in the most unexpected way.
The focus of this quarter’s newsletter is upon the Referral process itself. In the third of James Golden’s excellent Back to Basics series, readers will find a useful guide and refresher to the process by which parties can get their dispute into the hands of an adjudicator.
This is my third article on the basics of adjudication.
For many years now, the Technology and Construction Bar Association (“TECBAR”) has administered ADR panels of its members in the fields of arbitration, adjudication, mediation and dispute resolution boards.
The Brothers Grimm collection of Fairy Tales includes a tale about a tailor with “seven with one blow” embroidered on his belt, to explain that he had killed several flies with one stroke when they attacked his jam.
As some of you will know the introduction of a statutory basis for adjudication in the Republic of Ireland has had a long gestation. Now, the Construction Contracts Act 2013 (“the Construction Contracts Act”) has been enacted in the Republic on the 29 July 2013.
Whilst some nominating bodies distance themselves from investigating the charge out rates levied by adjudicators, complaints do arise as to the overall amount charged and/or time spent by an adjudicator in the conduct of a matter.
The executive committee is settling in well. I am still Acting Hon Sec; any volunteers to act as Hon Sec are welcome to email me. Richard Booth has been confirmed as the member of the Committee to replace the very long serving Tim Willis as regional coordinator.
There is a (still) new executive committee. Theresa Mohammed has retired through pressure of work as honorary secretary and I am assuming that role protem; any volunteers are welcome to email me!
When Glenn Godfrey and I first turned our minds to the content of this quarter’s newsletter it appeared that something rather unusual might have just taken place.
The Adjudication Society has recently published four additional Guidance Notes. These are:
1. Guidance Note: Construction Contracts and Construction Operations;
2. Guidance Note: Adjudicator’s Liens;
3. Guidance Note: Natural Justice;
Progress on the Irish Construction Contracts Bill 2010 comes sporadically rather than consistently. When passed, it will likely attain a record for the longest period between introduction in the Oireachtas (parliament) and signature by the President.
It has generally been accepted that only one dispute can be referred to adjudication. Although the court has generally been amenable to finding that multiple disputes have not been referred, there have been cases where a challenge on this basis has succeeded.
I came across a complaint from a party who, in their eyes at least, had “won” an adjudication, but couldn’t understand why the adjudicator had apportioned liability for some of his fees to them.
Unless you found yourself marooned on a desert island during 2012, it will not have passed your attention that the whole of the construction world suddenly got very excited in August.
The process of obtaining the services of an adjudicator has, from the very start of statutory adjudication in the UK, been a rather fraught affair.