Solicitors in England and Wales generally charge by the hour.

With solicitors charging over £200 plus vat per hour even a small problem can quickly become very expensive. Taking or defending a case in the court can cost tens of thousands of pounds and it is not possible to get all your costs back even if you win.

Sub Contractors are put off taking advice on contracts or developing problems simply because of the likely costs of doing so.

The National Legal Consortium addresses this problem.

• Clients pay one yearly agreed fee for all their solicitor’s costs (subject to the scheme rules) and that fee can be paid over 12 months. Clients will be entitled to a 5% discount on the agreed fee if it is paid in full within 28 days
• Clients are not charged by the hour, do not have to worry about whether they can afford to take advice and will not be billed for work covered by the scheme.
• The annual membership fee is generally less than 0.5% of a client’s turnover.
• Clients with experience of dealing with solicitors will know that any dispute is likely to cost substantially more than the yearly agreed fee.
• National Legal Consortium clients can take or defend proceedings, seek advice on contracts, notices or developments on site all for the cost of the annual agreed fee.
• Importantly clients can budget for their legal costs and will not be put at risk by the need to fund proceedings to obtain payment or in defending unexpected claims.
• National Legal Consortium clients can use the NLC logo to tell those that they deal with that they can rely on the benefits of being a National Legal Consortium client if they have to take legal advice.
• National Legal Consortium clients are entitled to a 15% discount on C E Law’s fees for dealing with matters arising before they became a client of the National Legal Consortium.