What is Adjudication?
Adjudication is a private, confidential, and consensual dispute resolution process to provide a legally binding and enforceable decision for the parties on an expedited basis. It allows prompt resumption of a long-duration contractual relationship when any dispute has arisen in any stage of a project before the contract is concluded or terminated. As such, disputes related to cost, payment, time-related matters or defective works and services can be resolved speedily and effectively at interim stages to ensure contracting parties’ cash flows would not be adversely affected or the disputes to be escalated until the end of the contract for court litigation or arbitration.
It aims to provide procedural flexibility and transparency with high efficiency and cost-effectiveness to parties of the Adjudication in accordance with the Statutory Adjudication and/or Contractual Adjudication framework. It is commonly adopted in major building and construction projects in Hong Kong and worldwide. It is also suitable for most projects which last over a relatively long period and speedy dispute resolution is beneficial at the interim or final stage, e.g., information technology or technology-related services contracts, shipbuilding industry, banking and finance, equipment installations, long-term customer services contracts, etc.