Fees charged to apply or Legal Aid

[theenquirer]

Hello, I have had to give a long explanation below but, to summarise, my main question is: is it reasonable to charge me £2500.00 to apply for legal aid? I have approached a solicitor to take a case for me but I am worried I am being ripped off. I had approached another solicitor before and he did not charge me any money to apply for legal aid. However that solicitor could not get it and did not argue my case well. He did not give me a copy of the application form so I do not know what he did. This solicitor has told me he is looking carefully at how to present my financial situation and my case saying he has a lot of experience doing this. He and one of his paralegals put together the application. I did all the work on income calculations, collected statements, etc. and completed form L31 but they completed the application form for the legal aid agency. I also collected all the evidence for the solicitors. Another solicitor did the legal ground work and issued a Pre-Action Protocol. It cost me good money. So this solicitor did not have to that either. I had to go for legal aid when I had spent a good chunk of the savings I had left. The problem is the solicitor asked me for £1000.00 to prepare the application, which I reluctantly paid. He told me he would return any money that was left, if any. They saw my financial situation and I made it clear I could not pay full solicitors fees. However, he kept me waiting for a few weeks and then he came and told me that they had to do extra work and asked me for another £1500.00 for them to be able to file the application (you know what this means). I told him to get this money from the legal aid agency and he said they would not be able to get it. He then said that they would file the application anyhow but asked me to propose a way to pay the money owed. Of course they did not tell me in advance about the additional £1,500.00. I need advice. It took me a long time to find a solicitor that wanted to apply for legal aid. I do not want to have to fight for the return of the £1000.00 and then waste several more months to find another solicitor but I do not want throw good money after bad either. Is it possible for me to check with the legal aid agency if they filed the application? I am very worried about giving him another £1500 from my limited resources and he could tell me the legal aid agency said no. This solicitor is regulated and he is in a largish consortium. So it is not any little man in a back room. Thank you.