He "Lawyer Guy" told people not to pay in advance initially because it was advice from IRCC on Twitter, he said wait for the guide, when the guide came out he said we should pay ahead.
He gave decent advice I think and I just watched his YT, some people really need a lot of hand holding through these things, they cant even read simple IRCC instructions.
IRCC really created a problem with the lack of communication, some people paid lawyers thousands only to end up stuck with the payment issues as well.