Diales Compendium Issue 3 - Flipbook - Page 20
Adjudicator Decisions
What makes you
think they really
understand the
matter?
Andrew Agathangelou
Diales Delay Expert
Adjudication proceedings for delay experts, are high risk.
Many adjudicators have a commercial or quantity surveying
background, rather than a project management or planning
background, which can often lead to variable outcomes in the
decisions reached by the adjudicator regarding the causes
of delay. This means that a delay expert must write and
structure his report in a way that addresses the needs of the
adjudicator. Too often, expert delay reports are written for
the benefit of the party employing the delay expert, rather
than for the benefit of the adjudicator. This means that too
much technical detail is provided, using language that an
experienced planner or site manager will understand, but an
adjudicator may or may not be familiar with.
Writing an expert delay report, using
language that an adjudicator can understand
and follow, increases the probability that the
adjudicator will find favour with the evidence
presented.
This is more difficult than it suggests, because some of the
causes of delay are complex, as is the explanation as why a
particular delay event delayed overall completion when there
might be many competing delay events.
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