Mendelsons Limited Terms of Business
- Introduction: This page sets out our Terms and Conditions of Business. They set out the terms under which we shall
be acting for you, and they also form the basis of our agreement with you.
2.Definitions: 1. The term ‘client care letter’ includes the covering letter sent to you once you have instructed us plus
these Terms and any enclosures attached.
- The term ‘your Fee Earner’ refers to the person with the day-to-day conduct of your matter unless
otherwise advised.
- The term ‘costs’ refers to the firm’s charges plus VAT.
- ‘Terms’ means these terms of business.
- The terms ‘Us’, ‘we’ and ‘our’ means Mendelsons Limited.
- “You” and “Your” means the client(s) who is/are named on the Letter of Authority.
- “Disbursements” are payments made to third parties on the Client’s behalf and may included, without
limitation, court fees, ombudsman fees, fees incurred with searches and any other reasonable and
necessary third-party costs incurred in progressing the claim. - Service Standards: We will assess Your claim and pursue a claim for the recovery of Your losses on Your behalf. If
needed, we will pursue your claim with the Financial Ombudsman Service and/or the Financial Services Compensation
Scheme. We will inform you of any/all offers of settlement. We will always act in Your best interests when pursuing Your
claim. If a payment of compensation is made directly to you, we will forward an invoice to you for immediate payment. We
will update you with the progress of your matter and in turn, we require you throughout your matter to provide us with
clear, timely and accurate instructions, together with all required documentation. - Business Hours: Our usual business hours are usually Monday – Friday between 9am and 5:30pm save for Friday
throughout the autumn/winter months where the business will close 2 hours before sunset. Any correspondence received
outside of these hours will be acknowledged within 7 days unless otherwise directed including an automated responses
sent from our systems. - Your Rights: You do not need to use a firm of solicitors to make a claim against your financial provider/Insurer, you can
do this yourself for free and if not successful, you can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services
Compensation Scheme if it falls under their remit. Your continuing instructions constitute acceptance of these Terms and
Conditions of Business.
6. Identification, Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: We are required by law to obtain
satisfactory evidence of the identity of our clients and sometimes people related to them and/or any third parties involved
in your matter. To comply with the law, we carry out an Anti-Money-Laundering search on all our clients. - Who can provide us with Instructions? Generally, we may only accept instructions from our clients. The Consumer
Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 apply where we do not meet with you. This means that you have the right
to cancel your instructions to us within 7 working days from the date of receiving these Terms of Business. - Data Protection and Confidentiality: Generally, all information supplied to us by you shall be always treated as
confidential. Your personal information is stored by us in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) and
The Data Use and Access Act 2025. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the information we
hold about you. We encourage communications by way of email and therefore shall correspond with you by such means.
Any communication over the phone is subject to a call recording service which is provided as part of VOIP Exchange and
by using this service we undertake that it is abiding by the following legislation linked to call recording in the United
Kingdom. - Third Party Referrals: If you have been introduced to us by another company, the introduction is regulated by the
SRA’s Code of Conduct 2011 (full details can be found on the SRA website (www.sra.org.uk). If you have been referred to
us, you are free to instruct a solicitor of your choice before we start doing work on your behalf. Any advice that we give
you is independent of the company who referred you and you are free to raise questions about any aspect of the service
Mendelsons Limited
that we provide. We are operating independently of any referrer and act entirely in your best interests. By signing our
agreement, you consent to any information provided to us in relation to the claim from yourself or a third party being
passed to the referrer. If your claim has been referred to us by a referrer, we may pay them a fixed fee. You are not
responsible for this payment.
Where your claim has been introduced to us by an introducer/referrer, by signing this agreement, you agree that we have
your authority to disclose to them details of the progression and outcome of your claim. It may be necessary for them to
contact you to help the claim progress to settlement and/or conclude the work on your file following settlement.
- Responsibility for Costs: As we are acting for you on a Non-Contentious Business Agreement if you win your case,
you will be responsible for our fees in accordance with the agreement. Where compensation is paid directly to you by the
compensator, you agree to pay our fee in full within 2 days of you receiving our invoice. - Disbursements: You are responsible for payment of all disbursements incurred in connection with the claim, whether
the claim is successful or unsuccessful. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, we may, at our discretion, pay disbursements
on your behalf. Any disbursements paid by us shall be reimbursed by you upon request or may be deducted from any
damages or costs recovered on your behalf. Where the claim is unsuccessful, you remain liable to reimburse us for all
disbursements incurred. We will provide you with information about significant disbursements in advance where
reasonably practicable and will keep you informed of disbursements incurred in accordance with our regulatory
obligations. - Value Added Tax (VAT): Please note that VAT is chargeable on our fees. This is a requirement under the Solicitors
Accounts Rules and the VAT treatment of solicitors’ overheads by HM Revenue & Customs. If you have any queries in this
regard (including your residency in the UK) please raise this with the Fee Earner with conduct of your matter as soon as
possible. - Financial Information: Upon conclusion we will render you a detailed invoice providing a full breakdown of all monies
received and how those monies have been expended. We shall send monies to you via an online payment direct to your
nominated bank account. We do not make payments by cheque. - File Retention and Retrieval: After completing the work, we will be entitled to retain all papers and documents
relating to your matter while there is money owed to us, which shall include any outstanding disbursements or expenses
and any monies owed on any other file of yours. Generally, we shall store your file of papers for a maximum of six years
from the date of the final invoice. You are entitled to any of your papers upon request. Unless we hear to the contrary, we
keep files on the understanding that we are authorised to destroy them after this time. - Suspension of Work and Termination of the Retainer
You may end your instructions to us in writing at any time. We may decide to stop acting for you but only when we have
good reason to do so and where we have provided you with reasonable notice. - Limitation of Liability: We have professional indemnity insurance giving cover for claims against the firm. Our liability
to you for a breach of your instructions shall be limited to £3,000,000.00 (three million pounds sterling). Should you have
any questions in this regard, please contact Steven Mendelson via email at sjm@mendelsons.co.uk - Regulated Services: Mendelsons Limited is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”)
under SRA Number 8008222. The SRA rules can be accessed by visiting the SRA rules website. - Complaints Procedure: Whilst we endeavour to ensure that you will be pleased with our service, in the unlikely event
that you do have any cause for complaint, this should be made as soon as possible and no later than 12 months after you
became aware/should reasonably have been aware there was cause for complaint. If for whatever reason you remain
dissatisfied, you should direct your concerns to our Complaints Handler, Mr. Steven Mendelson, who will investigate the
matter in full. If, after having exhausted our complaints procedure, you still remain dissatisfied with the outcome you
should direct your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman, contactable at PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH or by telephone on
0300 553 0333 or by email at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
Normally you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written
response from us about your complaint and no more than 1 year from the date of the act or omission being complained
about or no more than 1 year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.
We have 28 days to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal
Mendelsons Limited
Ombudsman. Please note, some clients may not have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, but this will be
explained to you if applicable to your matter.
If your complaint is in connection with how we have handled your personal data and we have not been able to resolve the
issue, the Information Commissioners Office regulates compliance with data protection law and your complaint would fall
within their remit. The ICO’s website provides further information on their procedure and they have made their complaint
form available online.
You may also be entitled to challenge any outstanding sum on an invoice by applying to the court for an assessment of the
bill(s) under Part III, Sections 70, 71 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974 provided the application is made within one month
from the date of delivery of the bill(s).
- Jurisdiction and Law: The law of England and Wales applies to the Terms and Conditions of Business.
- Conflict of Interests: Solicitors must endeavour to avoid situations of conflict and ensure that a client’s interests are
not compromised. We will advise you if we become aware that an issue of conflict exists.