Construction Adjudication Trends

Kings College London has recently published a new report into adjudication titled 2022 Construction Adjudication in the United Kingdom: Tracing trends and guiding reform. 

It is perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of construction adjudication in the UK.  It provides a detailed account of the state of play of adjudication and draws on the experience of users and key organisations.

It is the result of work by the Centre of Construction Law & Dispute Resolution at Kings College London with cooperation from The Adjudication Society.  The aim is to collect valuable data on adjudication, but it has widely expanded the scope of previous research in order to provide context to the data.  In addition, it identifies areas that may require further attention and possible reform.

Some of the key takeaways from the report include:

1. The number of adjudications referred through an adjudicator nominating body has been slightly under 2000 per year for the past 4-5 years, other than an increase of around 10% in 2020/2021 (possibly Covid related);
2. The leading causes of disputes are inadequate contract administration, changes, exaggerated claims and the lack of competence of project participants;
3. The most common claims are for extensions of time. Those are followed by final account claims and then interim payment claims;
4. The most common value of claims is between £125k and £500k;
5. Most adjudications are completed within 29 to 42 days;
6. The median of the total fees charged by adjudicators falls between £12,001 and £14,000;
7. Parties generally comply with the adjudicator’s decisions – 42% of respondents said that less than 5% of adjudicated cases proceed to litigation or arbitration;
8. A majority of respondents suggested that adjudicator’s decisions should not be published, but a large proportion felt that they should with redactions;
9. 40% of respondents said that they have suspected, at least once, that an adjudicator was biased towards a party; and
10. Adjudication has a diversity issue. Only a small proportion of adjudicators are female.

This is only a small number of points highlighted, the report runs to some 82 pages, and it is very much recommended reading for anyone involved in adjudication proceedings.  In fact, Lord Justice Coulson commented, “I enthusiastically commend this Report to anyone involved or interested in construction adjudication.  I suspect that its publication will come to be seen as a seminal moment in the story of this unique dispute resolution process”.