ABSTRACT
Design and Build Contract refers to five methods of dispute resolution: negotiation; mediation; adjudication; arbitration; and legal proceedings. Negotiation and mediation are voluntary processes which depend on the co-operation of the parties, and either may lead to a binding result. The adjudicator’s decision will be final and binding on the parties ‘until the dispute is finally determined by legal proceedings, by arbitration, or by agreement between the parties’. The parties must meet their own costs of the adjudication, unless they have agreed that the adjudicator shall have the power to award costs. The parties are jointly and severally liable to the arbitrator for fees and expenses. The parties avoid having to wait their turn at the High Court, and may choose a time and place for the hearing which is convenient to all. In arbitration, however, the parties have to pay the arbitrator and meet the cost of renting the premises in which the hearing is held.
