I have reached the stage in my career at which a number of old friends, and contemporaries amongst whom I practiced as a young lawyer, have gone the bench to sit as judges, and rather more of us now take appointments as adjudicators, arbitrators, dispute board members and the like.

Having  just finished writing another determination as an adjudicator in the Northern Territory, I have been struck again as to how much more satisfying it is these days to be able to deliver sensible legal results. Results that are on a timescale and at a cost that is hugely much more sensible that the typical cost of trials in the conventional legal system.

The quantum of this latest adjudication process was about the same as that in the last couple of trials I have done as counsel, in South Australia and in Victoria.  The total cost to the parties, including my costs as adjudicator, are a small fraction of the cost of those trials.

And I flatter myself, of course, to think that the result is much more reflective of the true entitlements of the parties than those of judges with no specialist expertise in construction law.