Adjudication Support & Claims Preparation
RemedialFixed FeeFor Subcontractors, Main Contractors & Clients
I prepare the money side of your claim or defence in adjudication, whether you're bringing it or answering it: the quantum built head by head and a Scott schedule an adjudicator can follow line by line.
The problem
You're owed serious money: the application was valid, the notices never came or the Pay Less Notice was late, and they're still not paying. Or the other side has started an adjudication against you and the clock is already running. Adjudication normally runs to a 28-day timetable from referral, extendable in limited circumstances, but only works if the case is built properly: the right documents, the right timeline, and the quantum, meaning the figure claimed, supported by evidence that withstands scrutiny. Built badly or late, a strong position loses to a weaker one better presented.
The solution
I take the claim or defence apart into its heads and build the money side of each: the contractual basis, the evidence behind it, what is claimed, what is supportable and the difference, with every figure traced to the bundle. It is delivered as a quantum report and Scott schedule to whoever is conducting the adjudication for you, inside an internal deadline set ahead of the timetable's, so there is time to check. I do the money only: liability, delay and the conduct of the proceedings stay with your solicitor or representative, and I work alongside them.
What you receive
The money side of your case arrives built to be used: every head valued on its evidence, the weak points named before the other side names them, every figure traceable to a bundle reference, and the pack with whoever is conducting the adjudication days ahead of the deadline. The proceedings, the law and the time stay with your representative and your programmer; the quantum is built to sit alongside them and hold.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: the timetable is agreed in writing at scoping and then kept.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You send me the paperwork
You send everything below in one go, then you are available for focused questions while I work through the file.
- A
The contract and every amendment
EssentialWithout it: The whole dispute cannot be tested against its own terms, so no head can be answered properly.
Where to find it: The order email or the job's commercial folder normally holds the signed copy; if it was never signed, send the last version exchanged and say so.
Why I need it: What the whole dispute is decided under
- B
Every notice served, both ways
ImportantWithout it: Whether a condition on a head was actually satisfied cannot be checked, so it gets valued as if it were and flagged as a risk.
Where to find it: The email trail with the other side's commercial team; search their contact and the project name and forward what comes back.
Why I need it: Notices decide more adjudications than arguments do
- C
All applications and certificates
EssentialWithout it: There is no financial history to test the claim against, so the sums in dispute cannot be established.
Where to find it: Applications come from whoever issues them, usually the sent items folder or the export from your accounts system; certificates come from the other side's emails or your own accounts package.
Why I need it: The financial history
- D
The correspondence
ImportantWithout it: A point that only the correspondence could prove or disprove is left as merely asserted either way.
Where to find it: An inbox search across the project's contacts usually surfaces it; forward threads whole rather than picking from them.
Why I need it: The evidence, and the honest state of it
- E
The records
ImportantWithout it: A head with no record behind it by the deadline is treated as unsupported, however strong the underlying case.
Where to find it: Whoever manages the site records, or the site team's own folders and phones: allocation sheets, daywork sheets, plant returns and diaries, exactly as they were kept.
Why I need it: What is being answered
- F
The referral or the response
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to answer, so the work cannot start.
Where to find it: This one is not on your systems: it is the notice of adjudication and the referral itself, served on you or by you. Send it exactly as served, appendices included.
Why I need it: The document the work answers
Quality: the full document with its appendices and the bundle, paginated.
- G
The timetable and the appointing body
EssentialWithout it: None of the internal deadlines can be set, so the whole timetable behind the response is unreliable.
Where to find it: The adjudicator's directions, sent to whoever received them first. Forward the email or letter exactly as it arrived, not a summary of the dates.
Why I need it: The timetable governs every internal deadline behind it
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I fix the timetable first
Every date in the adjudication is written down from the directions, with the time of day and the delivery method, and internal deadlines are set at least two working days inside the external ones. The whole timetable is confirmed to you in writing before any of the case is built.
Timetable confirmed in writing.
Every date in the adjudication is written down from the directions and confirmed to you in writing before any of the case is built.
You confirm who is conducting the adjudication
My pack goes to them, not to the adjudicator, and I work alongside them throughout. Where a head depends on a period of time, you or your programmer supply that period in writing; it is adopted and attributed, never assessed here.
I build the case
I reduce the claim or defence to its heads and build the quantum on each: the contractual basis, the evidence behind it, what is claimed, what is supportable and the difference, with every figure traced to a bundle reference.
Periods adopted in writing.
Any time-related sum is valued only against a period you or your programmer have confirmed in writing, and it is recorded as supplied by you.
You review the quantum before it goes
The quantum report and Scott schedule come to you before delivery, so the figures that go forward are ones you have seen and agreed. Commercial decisions stay with you throughout.
I deliver the pack to your representative
The quantum report, the Scott schedule and the bundle index go to whoever is conducting the adjudication for you, inside the internal deadline, so there is time for the quantum to be worked into the submission and checked.
Every figure traced to evidence.
Nothing is delivered until every cited document has been opened and verified and every figure traces to the supporting bundle.
I hand over quantum built to survive scrutiny
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
The Master Payment Tracker is the evidence base this work runs on.