A recent edition of the Law Society Gazette published thoughts on possible reforms to our construction adjudication system. This nudge for improvements is the initiative of solicitor Tim Seal (ex Pinsent Masons and now at Ridgemont). This chap knows his adjudication stuff, and I detect he is somewhat miffed – and he has a point.

It all began to come out at an evening seminar forum with Tim Seal, Anneliese Day KC, Justin Sullivan and yours truly. Tim is a tad perplexed by the quality of adjudicators’ decisions by those insufficiently experienced in deciding disputes at high speed. While the disputing parties can agree on an individual to act as adjudicator, it is more common for the referring (claimant) party to go to an adjudicator nominating body (ANB) such as the RICS, which then selects one from its panel. The snag is that some of us on the panel are getting long in the tooth – succession is a problem. We old hands, with 25 years of adjudicating, have not only learnt oodles but also moulded our process to turn rough justice in 28 days into something akin to sensible, well-reasoned decisions. My plea at the seminar was for aggressive training of new adjudicators. Yes, agreed Anneliese Day KC – and with the significant inclusion of women adjudicators.

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