Legal Question in Legal Malpractice in New York

My husband and I sought the advice of a bankruptcy attorney regarding credit card debt after my husband had been out of work for a year. We explained that we had equity in our home but could not get an equity loan due to a poor credit score from late mortgage payments due to his unemployment.

We also explained that my husbands name was on his mother's house and we do not receive any money from that property. The first consult over the phone the attorney said he could "reduce the debt by 50%." When we saw him in his office he said we would be filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy because we had equity in our home. He also said not to make any further payments on our mortgage until after we filed. We could not stress to him enough that the most important thing was protecting our home. The end result went like this: We followed his advice and by the time we filed we were 7 months behind in our mortgage, between the credit card debt and the missed mortgage payments the payment to the bankruptcy trustee would be $1650 a month. We had submitted all the proper documents which clearly showed we could not afford this payment, along with our mortgage and other living expenses. We expressed concern over what would happen if we missed a mortgage payment or a payment to the trustee and his reply was, "you don't want to do that." The third time we met with him he produced a fraudulent document saying we received rent in the amount of $1650 from my mother-in-law. He wanted her to sign this sworn statement and have it notorized. We were not comfortable with this and made an appointment to see him. He did not show up but sent his paralegal who looked over our income and payment schedule and agreed we would jeopardize our house if we went ahead with the bankruptcy. She advised us to withdraw our application, which we did promptly. We lost the $2400 we paid him and are in worse shape than ever. We are still months behind in our mortgage payments, we have judgements against us, we live in fear of our wages being garnished or our checking account being frozen. Does his unethical conduct and use of fraudlent documents give us grounds for legal malpractice? Clearly his intention was to make it look like our income was significantly more than it actually was. After many years of hard work we found ourselves in a very grave situation which has become worse because of his advice.The stress and repercussions of this situation have taken its toll on us financially, physically and mentally.

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