Instructed solicitor back in July and paid £2000 at once as they wanted it in advance to start work. Her charge is 290 ph. I'd applied for the divorce myself and had sorted out decree nisi before that. Solicitor is just for the financials.
I feel like progress has been quite slow. Most of the time she'll email me about something and I'll get back to her on the same day and she'll write again three or four days later. She's been on annual leave three times so far, once without even telling me and it was at a crucial point in the process. When we do speak/email her advice is always good and she seems fine, but she always seems busy with other stuff. We've exchanged Form E and she formulated a proposal but XS wasn't happy with it and he queried a few things. She still hasn't got back to him about it. She was supposed to call him on Tuesday. She told me she'll call him on Wednesday morning. Then Wednesday she said their systems are down and she doesn't have access to the files. So I reminded her this morning and she said she's busy with an urgent matter and will do it after lunch. She didn't, I assume busy with something else more urgent.
I find it all quite frustrating and I know XS does too. This is a very un-amicable divorce (whatever the word is) and he seems to think that I'm messing him around and these delays are a deliberate ploy. I've paid a further £1000 to the solicitor since (all invoiced showing detailed breakdown etc.) so have paid £3000 so far. Is this all how it is normally?