Hamish Lal Authors Article for Building Magazine on An Adjudicator’s Obligations

Building magazine has published “Legal: Say what you see,” an article written by Akin Gump international arbitration partner Hamish Lal. In the article, Lal examines a recent case that “adds to the possible ways that one could argue for a breach of natural justice having occurred during an adjudication.”

Lal writes that the case in question, Vinci Construction UK Ltd vs Beumer Group UK Ltd, is noteworthy because “it will encourage those involved in multi-party serial adjudications to seek disclosure of related decisions in the hope that such an exercise will show a party is taking wholly inconsistent positions in different adjudications.” He also says the Vinci Construction case shows “that a simple failure by an adjudicator who is actually requested by one party to order disclosure of earlier or other related adjudication documentation could be a breach of natural justice.”

The article goes on to describe an earlier—and similar—case involving the same parties. Lal then concludes by advising that “that related adjudications on a single project are not uncommon where a main contractor has a number of subcontracts or trade contractors – time and money issues are naturally interrelated and critical delay on one work package is likely to have an impact on other work packages.”