Adjudication is similar to arbitration, although there is a set timeframe within which the adjudicator must make a decision and parties are responsible for their own costs unless otherwise agreed. Decisions made in adjudication are binding.Adjudication is aimed at being faster and more cost effective and is commonly used in the construction industry to ensure payment and resolve other types of disputes.
Quoted from Amy Coney Barrett.
Question that arises. Since, decision made in adjudication are binding, is the court able to change that decision?Even if so, is the court able to exercise their supervisory power over adjudication process since this process is not part of court hearing.
As the Contract is silent on when a payment response should be served, s 11(1)(b) of the SOPA mandates that the payment response be served within 7 days after the payment claim is served. As the Payment Claim was served on 2 June 2010, the due date for the relevant payment response was 9 June 2010. It is common ground that the Defendant did not serve a payment response on the Plaintiff by 9 June 2010 or at all.
maintaining cash flow in the [construction] industry while disputes [are] settled via arbitration or court proceedings” by providing “a fast track procedure for an interim decision in respect of a disputed payment claim”. This policy would be frustrated if the court must invariably look into the parties’ arguments before the adjudicator
Associated Provincial Picture Houses v Wednesbury Corporation [1947] 1 KB 223[1] is an English law case which set down the standard of unreasonableness of public body decisions which render them liable to be quashed on judicial review. This special sense is accordingly known as Wednesbury reasonableness.According to this case, court will only step in if the adjudicator’s decision fulfill these 3 requirements.
Relying on Sungdo, the Defendant contended that the Payment Claim was not a valid payment claim under the SOPA because the Plaintiff did not intend it to be a payment claim under the SOPA, and in any case, had not communicated such an intention to the Defendant.