Lawyer's Fees

Hello to all...I have a couple of questions about my attorney's fees and I would welcome any input. This is the first time I've ever had to deal with a lawyer and I'm not sure if I'm way off base or what.

Quick info about my divorce: filing irreconcilable. stbx and I are totally amicable and had agreed on everything before we even consulted lawyers. No kids together, we have lived apart for 2 years and the only asset we had together was a house. He's been living in the house with his son during the 2 years apart, I have been renting. I've been paying $400 a month toward the mortgage and still covering the 2 of them on medical insurance. He wanted to keep the house and refi in his name which I am fine with.

When I hired my attorney I explained to her that this was an amicable divorce, we were not fighting over anything. She advised that I ask for 50% of the mortgage interest and property taxes to claim on my fed tax return next year as I had been paying something toward the mortgage each month. I told her I thought that was a high percentage to ask for since he's been paying more than double what I do each month but she still thought we should ask for it. Naturally, he and his attorney said no and offered 20%. I told her that was fine, I really didn't care either way...all I wanted was to get this done quickly so I didn't have to keep paying the $400 each month. This issue was the ONLY one and for me, it truly was a non issue and now I truly wish I had just told her not to bother with it. But I felt like she would know more about this than I did so followed her advice.

Now, I had paid a retainer of $1000 which was gone in a matter of weeks. They told me they couldn't go forward without an additional $1000 which I paid. I would call her office once a week to see where we stood and what the hold up was (we started this whole process at the beginning of July). She would sometimes not call back or if she did told me that his attorney was holding up the process and were fighting her on paperwork and the prove up process.

Last Friday I received a call from a clerk in her office stating that I had a balance due of $1100 and the court date had been set for Oct. 3 so they would also need an additional $2500 to proceed. I almost had a heart attack. When I received the statement that night I had been billed for email drafts I had never received and billed for 'revision reviews' almost daily.

I sent her a pretty scathing letter about all of this, in which I told her I wanted to dismiss her as my attorney. Received an email back from her today. She said that stbx's attorney had suddenly changed his mind and was willing to settle so the "$1500 court fee" would not be necessary (yes...the email I received said $2500, her letter said $1500). She has set up a teleconference with me for next Wednesday for us (her and I) to try and resolve our differences.

Here are some of my questions: how do I know if her office performed services if I am not notified of them? I don't expect a phone call everytime she reads a piece of paper but if she was sending revisions back to the stbx's attorney, shouldn't I be notified of that or is it standard for an attorney not to do that? If her office received communication back from his attorney, should I be sent a copy of that? Is almost $6000 excessive for this type of divorce or does it vary based on how much is charged for each fee?

Sorry for the long story...I'm just a little freaked out by all of this. If I'm completely out of line in my thinking, please feel free to tell me so. Like I said, the cost seems really high to me but this whole thing is new to me. Right now I feel like I'm being taken advantage of but that may be emotion and not reason talking.

Thanks again for any help or advice!