Adjudication - Case Study

Adjudication processes are usually document intensive and deadline driven. In this case study, a commercial dispute resolution business uses Lockbox to streamline and secure interactions between parties.

Adjudicate Today

Adjudicate Today is appointed by state governing bodies to oversee and manage Commercial Dispute Resolution between opposing parties in the building and construction industry as an alternative to going to court. Handling approximately 1,000 disputes per year ranging from $200 to $70 million; Adjudicate Today guides opposing parties through a formally managed, three week adjudication process. The process is strictly timetabled and requires all parties to adhere to stringent deadlines in order to achieve a fast, efficient outcome that puts the matter to rest and avoids the need for more lengthy and costly legal proceedings.

Challenge

Adjudication does not call on physical evidence but relies entirely upon document based submissions, applications, records and electronic communications between all parties.

Due to the short timeframe of this process, it is critical that the manner in which these confidential documents are sent and received is both efficient and secure, while maintaining an audit trail of who accessed which documents and when.

The adjudication process is broken down into a number of steps in which each side is given a specified number of business days to serve or respond. These deadlines are strictly enforced and are nonnegotiable.

Once any document is lodged, a receipt must be issued to confirm it has been received by the intended

“All documents go through us and in most cases they are extremely large – some are hundreds of pages in length. Document files are often over 10 MB, making email prohibitive for fast, reliable document exchange.”

Solution

After searching the internet for file transfer providers, Bob Gaussen, Managing Director of Adjudicate Today, was enthusiastic to discover that Lockbox customer portals offered easy-to-use online collaboration for people and organizations that want to privately share and track the receipt of information.

“We were one of the first Lockbox customers and once we got to know the product, we had some specific ideas for how it could work for us. Most impressively, the Lockbox team were very open to fine tuning the solution to meet our exact needs. It was a simple implementation process enhanced by working with good people. We got exactly what we wanted.”

Lockbox now allows secure document exchange for claimants and respondents in the adjudication process and receipts are automatically generated, providing full and accurate records of all lodgements.

“Lockbox is embedded in our website and accessible from almost every page, so not only does it enhance the professionalism of our organisation, but it is easy to locate and readily accessible by all parties” explains Gaussen. “Administration is extremely simple and it only takes us minutes to set up and invite new users.”

Lockbox Benefits

Gaussen sums up his experience of the Lockbox customer portal, “It is safe, secure, quick, efficient - just marvellous. One of the biggest advantages of Lockbox, for the people we work with, is it is deadline friendly. “

Law firms and those who have a lot riding on the outcome of the adjudication put a lot of time and meticulous preparation into their submissions – some reports can be 800 pages long, the instantaneous nature of Lockbox in comparison with email, fax and courier delivered or overnighted hardcopy, is that it gives them anywhere up to three days extra preparation time.”

Once a document is, in real time, dropped into the Adjudicate Today workspace, there is no waiting around for confirmation that it has been received; both sender and recipient are automatically notified when new content appears and when documents have been read.

“We strongly discourage the use of email now for large files. Lockbox is by far, more reliable and secure than other methods of delivery. Lockbox can make the difference between conflicting parties winning a case or jeopardising it all because of a missed deadline.”