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• Adjudication Statistics

Introduction

I recently received statistics from the Royal Institute of British Architects based on information contained in Adjudicator feed-back forms following the completion of an Adjudication.

The data is for the period July 2006 onwards and the results are as follows :-

The JCT Contract was the type adjudicated upon in 85% of cases, presumably because until recently the JCT Contracts have named the Royal Institute of British Architects as the default nominating body if the parties have not selected otherwise in the Contract.

The value of the Contract was above £1million in 40% of cases referred to Adjudication. In 49% of cases the value was between £100,000.00 and £1million.

The amount in dispute was £100,000.00 or above in 32% of cases; £50,000.00 to £100,000.00 in 33% of cases and £10,000.00 to £50,000.00 in 26% of cases.

The Adjudicator's costs were £1,000.00 to £3,000.00 in 31% of cases, which from my experience is low. In a further 33% of cases the Adjudicator's costs were £3,000.00 to £5,000.00 with Adjudicator's costs being above £5,000.00 in 18% of cases.

The nature of the dispute was payment in 41% of cases and valuation in 33% of cases. Time disputes were 11% of disputes referred and professional fees were only 3% of cases. Only 4% of cases were described as technical by the Adjudicator.

As to the method of Adjudication in 80% of cases submissions were written only and therefore meetings took place in only 20% of cases.

The Adjudicator made a decision in 75% of cases with 16% of cases settling and a further 9% of cases where no decision was made, presumably because the Adjudicator resigned following a jurisdictional challenge.

As to the outcome of the decisions 63% were in favour of the Applicant, 24% in favour of the Respondent and 13% described as being in favour of both Applicant and Respondent.

The Adjudicator only knew whether a decision had been complied with in 10% of cases and the decision had been complied with in 8% of cases.

In 49% of cases the Adjudication involved a challenge to the Contract Administrator. In 75% of those cases the challenge to the Contract Administrator was not upheld which makes interesting reading.

I understand approximately 95 Adjudication feed-back forms were considered by RIBA in compiling these statistics. Clearly they are only a snap-shot, albeit an interesting one.

Ashfords is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The information in this article is intended to be general information about English law only and not comprehensive. It is not to be relied on as legal advice nor as an alternative to taking professional advice relating to specific circumstances.