Draft payment notices and pay less notices that comply with statutory timing and content requirements.
Law & Contract Management
Statutory Adjudication of Construction Payment Disputes
Prepares construction lawyers and contract managers to prosecute and defend statutory adjudication claims, from payment notices through to enforcement of an adjudicator's decision.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
A contractor owed money on a construction project cannot afford to wait two years for a court judgment while cash flow dries up on site. Statutory adjudication was built to solve exactly that problem: a binding decision within twenty-eight days, enforceable even while the underlying dispute continues elsewhere. This course takes participants through the full lifecycle of a statutory adjudication, from serving a valid payment notice and pay less notice, through drafting a referral that survives a jurisdictional challenge, to enforcing a favourable decision by summary judgment when a losing party refuses to pay. Delegates examine how payment provisions in construction contracts must comply with statutory notice requirements to avoid a 'smash and grab' claim, how adjudicators are appointed and how their jurisdiction can be challenged without wasting the process, and how natural justice arguments are used, and resisted, when a decision is contested. The course also covers valuation disputes, extension of time interaction with payment, and multi-party adjudications on complex projects. Delegates draft a referral notice, a response and a rejoinder on a realistic payment dispute, and finish with an enforcement strategy memorandum for taking a decision to court.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Prepare a referral notice that withstands a jurisdictional challenge to the adjudicator's appointment.
Respond to a referral with a response and rejoinder that address valuation and entitlement issues directly.
Identify natural justice grounds on which a losing party might resist enforcement of an adjudicator's decision.
Advise on 'smash and grab' claims arising from a payer's failure to serve a valid pay less notice in time.
Enforce an adjudicator's decision through summary judgment where a losing party refuses to comply.
Manage multi-party and multi-contract adjudications on complex construction and infrastructure projects.
Who Should Attend
Construction lawyers advising contractors, subcontractors and employers on payment disputes
Contract and commercial managers responsible for payment applications on construction projects
Quantity surveyors preparing valuations and payment notices for interim and final accounts
In-house counsel at contracting and engineering firms handling recurring adjudication claims
Project managers coordinating a project's response to a live or threatened adjudication
Claims consultants and adjudicators supporting or deciding statutory payment disputes
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01The Statutory Payment Framework
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Payment Notices, Pay Less Notices and Timing
- Map the statutory timeline for payment applications, payment notices and pay less notices on a construction contract.
- Identify the consequences of a payer's failure to serve a valid pay less notice within the statutory deadline.
- Draft payment notices that state the sum considered due and the basis of calculation as the statute requires.
- Advise on contract amendments that comply with statutory payment provisions rather than attempting to exclude them.
Session 2The Right to Adjudicate at Any Time
- Explain the statutory right to refer a dispute to adjudication at any time, regardless of contractual dispute clauses.
- Distinguish adjudication from arbitration and litigation as a temporarily binding, rapid-turnaround process.
- Identify what constitutes a dispute capable of being referred, including crystallisation and prior negotiation.
- Select an adjudicator nominating body and understand how appointment timescales affect referral strategy.
02Running an Adjudication
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Drafting the Referral Notice
- Draft a referral notice that matches the dispute notified and avoids introducing new, unreferred claims.
- Assemble supporting evidence, witness statements and expert reports within the compressed adjudication timetable.
- Frame relief sought so the adjudicator can grant a clear, enforceable decision on sum, time or entitlement.
- Manage document bundle preparation and service within the strict statutory and procedural time limits.
Session 2Responding to a Referral
- Prepare a response that challenges both jurisdiction and the merits without waiving the jurisdictional objection.
- Raise valuation, set-off and cross-claim defences supported by contemporaneous project records.
- Request an extension of the adjudicator's decision period where complexity genuinely justifies more time.
- Draft a rejoinder that responds to new material without expanding the dispute beyond its original scope.
03Jurisdiction, Natural Justice and Challenges
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Jurisdictional Challenges to an Adjudicator's Decision
- Identify grounds for challenging jurisdiction, including an invalid referral, absent contract or expired right to refer.
- Preserve a jurisdictional objection throughout the adjudication without being taken to have submitted to it.
- Distinguish a true jurisdictional error from a mere error of law or fact within the adjudicator's remit.
- Advise on the practical risk of raising a jurisdictional challenge that delays payment without ultimately succeeding.
Session 2Natural Justice and Procedural Fairness
- Identify natural justice breaches such as an adjudicator deciding a point never put to the parties.
- Advise on bias and conflict of interest challenges to an adjudicator's independence during the process.
- Assess whether a procedural irregularity is material enough to affect enforcement of the eventual decision.
- Draft submissions that protect a party's right to be heard on every issue the adjudicator intends to decide.
04Enforcement and Interaction with Other Disputes
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Enforcing an Adjudicator's Decision
- Prepare a summary judgment application to enforce an adjudicator's decision against a non-paying party.
- Anticipate stay of execution arguments based on a paying party's financial position or insolvency risk.
- Advise on set-off against a favourable adjudication decision where cross-claims exist under the same contract.
- Recover adjudication and enforcement costs within the limits the contract and adjudication scheme allow.
Session 2Adjudication Alongside Arbitration, Litigation and Insolvency
- Advise on the 'pay now, argue later' principle and how a final dispute forum can revisit an adjudicator's decision.
- Coordinate a live adjudication with parallel arbitration or litigation on related aspects of the same project.
- Assess how insolvency of either party affects the right to adjudicate and to enforce a decision already obtained.
- Build an adjudication strategy into a wider project dispute plan covering extension of time and final account claims.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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