What is normal practice for solicitor in providing information to a client?

OP, can you elaborate on this...

I have asked them to provide me with a list of outstanding queries relating to the sale.

Is that a list of queries from you to the solicitor - which are outstanding? Or queries from third parties?

"They have previously handled the probate in the same matter and were quite unhelpful with this also."

Stop giving them business. There are loads of great solicitors.

My general advice:

1. Don't pick the cheapest, even for a "simple" job.
2. Don't pick your family solicitor
3. Don't use the same flipping guy to sell a place that he just probated. To me that's a conflict of interest, as any issues with title or deeds (which should have been sorted at probate) will not be raised at sale.

In the sale of a property, once contracts have been signed the role of the vendor's solicitor is basically reactive. He responds to issues raised by the purchaser's solicitor, and he sorts out anything that is causing them a problem (if it is something he can sort out). He only becomes proactive if the purchaser is being dilatory, in which case his role is to press them to complete the transaction, and to advise his own client on the options available if the purchaser will not complete.

He could report to his client about the various queries received from, and issues raised by, the purchaser, and then he could spend more time dealing with the client's inevitable questions about what these mean and whether they matter. This would take up a great deal of time and add absolutely nothing to the completion of the transaction. The client won't want to pay for it and, if the solicitor has quoted a fee for the transaction, they won't want to spend time on it for which they are not being paid. So it doesn't normally happen.

I fully appreciated where you're coming from. In my own job, I could spend my entire day documenting my work to the nth degree, updating open actions lists, etc, and getting nothing done as a result. But to be fair, I don't think the OP is looking for a formal report at every stage of the process. An outright refusal to give any information whatsoever about the process seems very unprofessional, as does getting angry with the OP.

Not being smart, but are you saying that keeping the client informed (to a basic level) of how things are proceeding is not something which would be costed for or usually done?

What has the OP likely being got to do with anything? Or in her early 30's? A client from hell is a big leap based on a single post.

The o/ps attitude and expectations can easily be judged from a single post. She probably has that poor solicitor driven mad with phone calls looking for progress reports and copies of documents. She is old enough to be assertive but not old enough to know how the world works. The fact that she has only posted once and not returned says a lot.

The client doesn't want a "brief note"; she wants a list of outstanding queries. And it's a dead certainty that, if the client gets a list of outstanding queries, they will come back with a list of queries of their own - What is this one about? Why does that one matter? I have never heard of a "requisition on title"; can you explain to me what it is?

None of this adds any value or efficiency to the conveyancing process; most clients don't want it and for that reason it's not priced in. I think what you price in is the cost of managing the client's expectations - the vendors have raised some queries; I am dealing with them; to do this I need X from you; based on experience I reckon the queries can be dealt with satisfactorily; with a fair following wind we might hope to complete the sale in X time; if anything arises that changes this I'll let you know.

You are talking about materially relevant, the o/p wants a complete list. there would be few , if any, which would require input from the client.

That is not how the real world works. The o/p is selling a house. She does not need a blow by blow account. Solicitors are not worried about being bad mouthed by a pest. It works both ways. If she bad mouths her solicitor she may find it difficult to get another solicitor in the future. She went to a solicitor she had previous dealings with, wasn't happy and yet went back to the same solicitor. You can change solicitors but not a solicitor.

they asked to be copied on all correspondence. this is not normal and the solicitor is right to charge for it if the client insists.

we will have to agree to disagree. Expected to be copied on all correspondence for no additional cost is being unreasonable.

not all correspondence is email.

That's a fairly clear slippery slope fallacy. Follow up questions are a different problem to the OP asking for a status update, and getting a borderline abusive response form their solicitor.

As I said earlier, I understand the solicitors point of view to an extent, but it's no reason to point blank refuse to engage, or get angry with the OP.