Bad Design - Lawyer Dropped the Ball on Class Action Suit

I have a home that has what was deemed a bad design by an architect that our lawyer requested to an analysis. Our lawyer left town and our case was assigned to another lawyer in the firm. This was a class action suit that began in 1993 just trying to get us some satisfaction. On 4/22/1999, we received notice from the courts that our suit was dismissed on grounds of abandonment. Our contention is the lawyers abandoned us after it was too late for us to get further assistance. Since this was a class action suit, I think I should be able to sue the law firm for malpractice. Our original lawyer was good and pursued our case, but when it was turned over to a new/young lawyer, it became unimportant. We went to a laywer because we didn't know how to handle it ourselves, and they just showed us they didn't know how to handle it either. Do you have any suggestions for us on what steps we should take to bring this back to light? Could we not be sued by the other people who the class action suit covered because of the abandonment?

Unless they covered themselves well, such as with letters saying we've concluded it is a oser, feel free to get other counsel, etc. it sure sounds like classic malpractice to me. And an ethical violation.