ARBITRATION / LITIGATION and ADJUDICATION.

The arbitrator / judge will be aware that an adjudication has taken place and inevitably will be aware that the claimant / plaintiff was not satisfied with the outcome of the adjudication. The arbitrator / judge will not know the details of the adjudication decision until he has made his final award or ruling and turns his attention to the award of costs. The reason for the adjudicator's decision therefore has no impact on the subsequent decision and from this perspective the subsequent hearings differ significantly from an appeal from a previous finding of an arbitrator or lower court.

If the claimant wins the arbitration or court case he will recover the monies paid out complying with the adjudication decision and the costs of the claim. If he fails the adjudication decision is undisturbed and the claimant covers the cost of the failed claim. If the arbitration award or court judgement is less than the adjudication decision the claimant will have to pay the costs of the action. There is therefore considerable risk involved in deciding to take the claim to arbitration or to court. In the two years since adjudication came into being there have been very few subsequent challenges. To all intents and purposes therefore for most people adjudication ends up being the final stage of the dispute resolution process.

The great value of adjudication is that the parties quickly get a decision which enables them to get on with business and put the dispute behind them. Even if one of the parties decides to proceed further the parties have a firm basis upon which to proceed in the interim period. Prior to the introduction of construction adjudication it was common for building sites to grind to a halt until a dispute was settled. This is no longer the case. Projects are completed quickly and the industry has saved a great deal of money by avoiding unnecessary disruption. The same benefits can be enjoyed by parties to contractual, as opposed to statutory based, adjudication processes

COMMON REQUIREMENTS FOR ADJUDICATION AND ARBITRATION

• Party confidence in the professionalism of the Arbitrator or Adjudicator.
• Party confidence in the rules governing the process.
• A well administered process.