Divorce seems to have come to a dead end and a stop

[BlueMountainAir]

My mother applied for legal aid 5 years ago. She was granted it and she started divorce proceedings against her husband/my father. Their separation was long term. He was in a mess of a debt situation. Aside from that, it wasn't very messy. My mother wanted to save the family home and there was an agreement made in relation to that.

However, 5 years down the line - there's a complete dead end. The solicitor is useless and lazy and she's gets a letter from from him about once or twice a year usually requesting for an update on the exes debt situation or the house.

5 years and there is still no hearing for a divorce. This is completely wrong.

What is wrong when it all comes to a stop?

Nobody on here can tell you
Your mother should write to her solicitor and ask for confirmation of the present position and of the next steps
If not happy with response she should complain to the Client Care Partner

May need to consider moving firm on

They need to re-do the agreement because it's 5 years old now and then advise their solicitors to process it through the court.

How come your mum didn't chase it up originally when she didn't hear anything back? 5 years is a wierdly long time to wait.

She started the divorce proceedings 5 years ago. It was letters and forms back and forth until about 2020. There's been some letters since then but there's just no progress and no hearing date.

Okaaay!!!! So when she rings the solicitor and asks for an update what does he/she say?

Your query is lacking some information. Is it the divorce that hasn't moved on? In which case, where is she up to?

Or is it the finances? Again, where is she up to on this?

and does she have a legal aid certificate, or just Legal Help?

This is really about money and debt I think. Your DM needs to get into the solicitor and understand what the debt means regarding the financial settlement. Get the divorce and then sort out the finance. I guess your DM doesn’t want responsibilities for his debts. This needs to be sorted out in a way you and dm can understand.

If she has issued proceedings with the Court she should have had a hearing years ago. Are you sure she issued? She can just do it now, no need for a solicitor to do that.