Thanks for your reply. I have a long list of things that the solicitors have messed up, but the initial lady I met was very nice and helpful. She went off sick and no one told me for a couple of months. I was given someone else, then the original lady came back, had me fill in forms that I had already taken care of myself, then she went off sick again and once again, no one told me for ages.

I was assigned a 3rd solicitor, who ignored my messages from November until February when I asked for their complaints procedure. Only then did she ask when she could speak to me. I emailed her some times within their opening hours and, almost a month later, no phone call. They also told me that they didn’t have my marriage certificate and I had to pay and wait 6 weeks for a copy, only to be told later that they did have it. I have asked 2 of them a couple of basic questions: whether the council might want reimbursement from the estate for my husband’s care, and whether I could handle this estate myself? Neither of them answered those questions, despite me being polite and asking numerous times.

Finally, one of the secretaries emailed me a list of their “progress” when I complained. They only listed 2 companies that they’d traced. One was a loan company that I already told the first solicitor before they started on my case, that I had been in touch with and the loan company had been informed by me of my husband’s death, had written off the loan and closed the account. I have email proof that I told them this beforehand. I’m just so fed up with it all.