Investigating cost of legal work for child access

[anonymous-user]

A friend had to go to court to gain regular access to his child - don't really know the details but had to fight a lot of the way, and at one point the child's mother denied access so he had no access for a year, until it finally went through the courts and the judge was very firm that if she did it again (along with numerous other unhelpful things) she would go to prison for contempt of court, that's the level of pushback he was dealing with.

Reckons the whole process cost him around £50k, which a few people have told him was way over the top for the services he was provided with through his solicitor (or at least over the top for the legal work that *should* have gone into what he wanted to achieve).

Is there any way to get an independent view on what his solicitors did for him, identifying any poor practise or potential overcharging, and possibly gain compensation if it's found they took advantage of him/charged for unnecessary work/put in too many billable hours to do the required work? I know caveat emptor and all that, but legal services aren't like buying used cars, there must be some professional guidelines on what they should do and what they can charge?

The work would have taken place on and off between about 2010 and 2015, so not all that recent, if that makes a difference.

The mother's representation was paid for by Legal Aid.