Lawyer did not do what was in the agreement and also stole $3000

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

I am writing on behalf of my aunt who only speaks Vietnamese. This is also lengthy because of translation from Vietnamese to English but we would really appreciate any help/ advice that we can get.

About six years ago, my aunt & uncle purchased a nail salon. They had purchased this salon from another person, but they had to sign a lease of their own for the location not really reading the contract. About a year later, they sold the salon to another individual who also went through the background/credit check with the landlord and signed a new lease for the location. In this lease, it stated that it held the 1st individual, my aunt & uncle, and the 3rd individual for the lease. It also stated that if the lease was to be terminated, any of their homes would be held as collateral until the lease amount could be met.
Well, the person that bought the salon from my aunt walked out on the lease and closed shop. The location was empty for about 2 months before a cell phone store came in and occupied the space. The landlord, months after the space had been leased out, found out that my aunt & uncle had put their home up for sale and that it was under contract to be sold. The landlord, then proceeded to go after my aunt & uncle for sale of their home, an not the other 2 individuals who are also on the lease.
My aunt & uncle then hired an attorney to work on this situation for them, for the landlord wanted more than a third from the sale of the house. The attorney charged a flat $2,500 for their case. He then proceeded to tell them that the landlord agreed to settle the lease for $3000. My aunt not understanding the proper documentations, then gave this lawyer a check for $3000 with the recipient line left blank. The lawyer told them that everything was taken care of. Well, as it turned out, he cashed the check for himself and never took care of anything.


So, questions are,

Do they have a case against this lawyer, because of his negligence, my aunt and uncle are unable to sell their house without the landlord wanting over $100k from the sale? They do not care as much about the $3k they lost to him, but they would like to know what they can do clear this up. They do not want to sink more $ into a losing battle.

If you have any insight or any advice on what the next step should be, please, please reply. Thank you very much.

As I see it, the biggest problem here was the language barrier. Your aunt and uncle should NEVER have signed the original lease without understanding exactly what it said. They got themselves further into trouble by doing pretty much the same thing with the attorney.

It sounds to me like there is a lot of confusion going on here, and I'm not entirely sure that the attorney has actually done anything wrong.

The $3000 that your aunt and uncle paid covered the attorney fees to arrange the settlement with the LL. It DID NOT pay the actual settlement, only $500 of it (attorney fees $2500 deducted from the check, leaves $500 left over for the settlement costs).

Your aunt and uncle need to go back to the attorney, WITH AN INTERPRETER, as it appears they need it, and discuss exactly what the next steps will be in completing the settlement with the LL. There would be papers to sign to acknowledge the settlement amount as payment in full, which of course would need to be accompanied by the remaining $2500 to pay off the settlement. Or there would need to be some payment arrangement agreed to in order to cover the payment due.