Adjudication referral numbers have been climbing again this year, and the reasons are fairly consistent with what we're seeing directly: tighter margins mean less appetite to absorb a disputed valuation quietly, and more contracts are reaching completion with genuinely unresolved final accounts.
None of that is necessarily bad news for the industry. Adjudication exists precisely so cash flow disputes don't have to wait for a full trial to be resolved. What it does mean is that getting final accounts agreed as work progresses — rather than banking on a good-natured settlement at the end — matters more than it did a few years ago.
