Jackson McDonald’s Get Paid Quick (GPQ) online tool can assist those in the construction and building industry to generate a draft adjudication application in accordance to the Construction Contracts Act 2004 (WA) (the ‘Act’) as it supports good payment practices within the industry.

The Process

GPQ confirms your eligibility to apply for adjudication and then seeks information from you to prepare a draft adjudication application form.

You can use GPQ if you have a construction contract and:

It will take you about 15-20 minutes to work through the GPQ online tool.

The diagram below shows the stages of GPQ and questions we will ask regarding different aspects of your claim.

When you have completed entering the information into GPQ, a draft adjudication application form will be generated and sent to us for review and completion (see Timing – what’s next? below for further information).

What you need to use GPQ

You will need to refer to certain documents when working through the GPQ online tool. At any stage, you can save your progress and return to it at a later stage. Before you start, gather together the following relevant information:

For the process to work effectively it is very important that the information and documents entered into the GPQ online tool are current and correct.

Click here to download a copy of the glossary which will help you with understanding any legal terminology.

Timing – What’s next?

When you have completed entering your information into GPQ, a draft adjudication application form will be generated and sent to our team of experienced construction lawyers to review. Our lawyers will then review the documents you have uploaded, including the contract and your disputed payment claim and finalise the legal submissions to both demonstrate entitlement and, as necessary, to rebut the other party’s arguments as to why they are not paying you.

We then prepare your adjudication application for lodgement, return the adjudication application to you for approval at which point payment of our invoice is completed. Once we receive your approval, the application is lodged with the adjudicator, served on the other party, and the adjudication process starts.

We will endeavour to review your application as soon as possible, typically within a week. Then within 20 business days after your adjudication application has been submitted you should obtain a determination saying how much the other party owes you.

Our terms and conditions our outlined here and available for download.

GPQ is a cost effective online tool for adjudicating payment disputes. Our standard rate is 12.5 % of the value of the claim with a minimum payment of $1,875, moving up to a cap of $20,000 i.e.:

Included in our fees will be the following:

• reviewing the draft adjudication application from the GPQ online tool and the accompanying documents to confirm your entitlement to adjudicate;
• finalising the necessary legal submissions to demonstrate entitlement to payment, and to rebut the other party’s arguments as to why payment is not due;
• finalising the adjudication application;
• the fee for lodgement and appointment of the Adjudicator;
• preparing the necessary copies of the adjudication application and the supporting documents;
• serving the application on the adjudicator nominating body and the other party; and
• general administration costs such as, general postage, photocopying and local telephone calls.

Our fees are not dependant on the success of your adjudication, or on how much you recover, and will be the same whether or not your matter is successful.

Additional fees

Any adjudication application will also incur an Adjudicator’s fee which will be an additional cost on top of our fees – which is the payment to the Adjudicator for their time in reviewing the adjudication application, the other party’s response, and writing the Determination (the decision).

The full Adjudicator’s fee is estimated to be between $3,000 - $10,000 (plus GST) depending upon which Adjudicator is appointed. Generally, the Adjudicator’s fee will be equally split (50% each) by each party, so we estimate you will be required to pay between $1,500 - $5,000 (plus GST).

Sometimes the Adjudicator asks questions of the parties. We can help you answer those, and time we spend doing that will be charged at the following discounted hourly rates:

We do not expect there to be any additional out of pocket expenses apart from the above, but we will let you know if any arise.

If upon review of your forms and documents we determine your matter has a low prospect of success, we may decide that it is best that you do not proceed with lodging your adjudication application. If this occurs we will contact you to discuss and we will not charge you anything - all funds will be returned to you.

Services we will not provide - Work not included in our standard fees

We will not be undertaking any of the tasks below and are not included in our fees:

• undertaking work to verify or investigate the facts contained in the draft adjudication. We will be relying on the information and details you put in to the GPQ online tool and we will assume that what you tell us is true and correct;
• legal advice provided by us after the outcome of the adjudication, including in relation to any appeal or review;
• legal advice regarding matters raised by the other party in their response;
• advising on or taking any action to secure payment of any money owed to you because of the Adjudicator’s decision; and
• any face-to-face meetings or conferences with you.

Although the tasks listed above do not form part of our standard services, we can provide these services for you if you want us to, and if so, we will charge you based on the discounted hourly rates noted above.

Our terms and conditions our outlined here and available for download.