James Golden

This is my final article on the basics of adjudication. My aim is to put any alleged complexities of adjudication in perspective and, as far as possible, empower those of us that work in construction, and are only occasional users of adjudication, to understand and be capable of entering into and completing the adjudication process without specialist advice.

This is my sixth article on the basics of adjudication for lay users. In this article, I am going to try to demystify issues surrounding Meetings, Site visits and Witnesses.

This is my fifth article on the basics of adjudication. You will recall that my aim is to put any of the alleged complexities of the adjudication process in perspective and empower sensible, organised construction profession people, who only use adjudication infrequently, to use the process to resolve simple disputes confidently without recourse to specialist support. That is what the process is for, after all.

This is my fourth article on the basics of adjudication. You will recall that my aim is to put any alleged complexities of adjudication in perspective and, as far as possible, empower those of us that actually work in construction, and are only occasional users of adjudication, to understand and be capable of entering into and completing the adjudication process without specialist advice. The adjudication process is supposed to assist construction by sorting our disputes with as little fuss as possible.

This is my third article on the basics of adjudication. You will recall that my aim is to put any alleged complexities of adjudication in perspective and, as far as possible, empower those of us that actually work in construction, and are only occasional users of adjudication, to understand and be capable of entering into and completing the adjudication process without specialist advice. The process is supposed to assist construction by sorting our disputes with as little fuss as possible. It is supposed to be used by construction people who are not completely steeped in the law.

This is my second article reviewing the basics of adjudication. You will recall from my previous article that my aim is to put the alleged complexities of adjudication in perspective and as far as possible empower those of us that actually work in construction, and are only occasional users of adjudication, to understand and be capable of entering into and completing the adjudication process themselves without specialist advice.

As many of you are aware from previous newsletters or otherwise, the Construction Contracts Bill was dramatically passed by the Irish Seanad (Upper House) in the dying hours of the last parliament. Since then, the Bill has made a slow progress into the Dáil (Lower House) and is now awaiting Committee Stage there.

A criticism sometimes levelled at us in the Adjudication Society is that we can seem to focus on the problems with adjudication rather than on how to use the process. Adjudication is designed to be a rapid cost effective method of resolving construction disputes during the life of the project, which will allow the parties to continue with their contractual relations and deliver projects more efficiently. It need not be either complex or difficult. If you are a competent project manager then adjudication should be a tool in your tool box to help you manage your work.