Adjudication Agreement (B136)

Who can use this adjudication agreement?

You can use it when you have a dispute under a contract and want an adjudicator to decide the dispute.

What is this contract for?

Adjudication is a way of resolving disputes without going through the cost and lengthy formalities of court proceedings.

Under a law passed in 1996, any party to a construction contract has the right to require that a dispute is referred to an adjudicator before being dealt with by the courts or arbitration. The adjudication procedure for construction disputes is laid down in the law and the basic rule is that an independent adjudicator will reach a decision within 28 days from the date the cases referred to him/her.

But you can use adjudication  for disputes other than construction.

Or you can avoid court proceedings in other ways – e.g. with mediation,  where the parties will try to reach agreement with the help of the mediator rather than having a decision imposed on them. We have a form of appointment of a mediator, document A130.  We also have free guidance on alternative dispute resolution

What are the main issues?

 Scope of appointment.   Our  appointment of an adjudicator assumes that the adjudicator appointed under this agreement will deal with any disputes that the parties to the contract referred to him/her.

Adjudication procedure.  This will set out the basic rules for the adjudication – documentation to be supplied and timing including the time within which the adjudicator will issue a decision.  The adjudicator will usually have  some discretion on how to run the adjudication. Also, the adjudicator may or may not have to give reasons for the decision.

Adjudicator’s fees and expenses. The agreement will specify these as well the responsibility of the parties for payment.  Usually they will share the costs equally but the adjudicator may be empowered to say, in their decision, whether the costs will be apportioned in a different way.

What detailed terms does the agreement contain?

The main points cover:

• appointment
• adjudication procedure
• fees and payment
• liability
• confidentiality
• termination
• notices
• law and language

A schedule is included, allowing parties to detail the adjudicator’s fees and expenses.

You need this document if you are a party to a disputed contract, and want to appoint an adjudicator to address disputes.

For more information on each of these sections, see our Explanatory Notes which you will receive when you download the document from our website.

And if you want to use the Notes, let us know by using our contact form

For information on signing documents see our Contract Signing page

When I download the document, can I change it and/or use it more than once?

Yes, all ContractStore’s templates are in MS Word and you can use the contract on more than one project. For more information, watch the video on this page of our website or see our FAQs

Legal support

ContractStore supplies templates and is not a law firm.  But experienced lawyers write all our templates, so we can arrange legal assistance for customers who need special terms in one of our documents or a bespoke template. . For more information see our Legal Services page.  For more information see our Legal Services page.

Contract Author – Giles Dixon

And if you want to contact us see our Contacts page.