Attorney is stealing my refinance!

[LlomaxX]

What is the name of your state? Missouri

My wife owed a bill to a local university, and we received a summons to appear in court by a lawyer representing the university. I contacted the lawyer and we settled on a repayment amount and a payment schedule. He originally intended to collect approx. $2560 which included interest and fees well above the original debt amount. We agreed that I would pay $2250 in three equal payments of $750 each, in exchange for settlement of the debt and dismissal of the case without prejudice. I have the letter signed by the attorney stating the agreement, and have the cancelled check of the first payment.

In the month following, I have refinanced my house, getting cash out for home improvements, and at the close I noticed there is a lien on the title, stated as a judgement for the university and against my wife, but no amount is specified on the Exceptions page of the loan papers produced by the title company. The loan included a payoff to the university equal to the amount of my last payment, which made sense to me since we were to receive funds on the same day that my second payment would be due. I waited for the funds to release before sending the second payment, just in case the lawyer at the last minute decided to report the remaining balance of $1500 instead of $750.

When the funds were released, the amount received in my account was $1810 less than it should have been, and when I inquired as to why, I was told that the lawyer for the university had sent in a revised payoff amount of the original $2560! I contacted the county clerks office, and the original court case shows as being continued as per our agreement.

My questions:

1) Does the statement made by the title company mean that there is now currently a judgement finding for the university against my wife that will now show on her credit for the next 10 years, or is it merely there until the pending case is either settled or dismissed?

2) Is there any legal action I can take against this attorney for breach of contract, or fraud (misrepresenting the amount owed to the title company), damage to my wife's credit, etc.?

3) What should my next step be to settle this matter quickly? The escrow agent has not released the requested funds to the attorney yet, since I am disputing the amount, but she is not going to be able to hold these funds much longer.

I have attempted to call the attorney several times, but he has not returned my calls as of yet.

[LlomaxX]

Sorry...I should have stated in my previous post that we reached a repayment agreement in exchange for settlement of the debt and dismissal of the case "WITH" prejudice, not "without". "Dismissal with prejudice" always sounds to me like the opposite of what it means.