Family Friend's Son Had Her Co-sign On Several Hundred Thousands Of Dollars Of Loans, And He Has Let Them All Go To Collections And Trashed Her Credit Score. What Are Her Options?

So a good family friend of mine let her son talk her into co-signing or being the guarantor on a bunch of loans for his "business." The dollar amount is around a quarter million. He's been hiding from her that he hasn't made any payments, until now the delinquency has gotten so bad that her credit score has dropped to sub-500, her bank closed her credit cards out of concern for credit-worthiness, and all of this is happening while she wants to sell her house and move. She has nowhere near the capital to pay these loans off herself.

I'm trying to help but I don't even know what kind of options she has, or what kind of lawyer to point her towards to get started. Obviously there are several concerns but one of them is that if she sells the house, a collections agency or state Marshall could come in and simply take those funds from her account, leaving her without money to buy another home or the ability to get a mortgage with her credit score so bad.

Since it's family, this is a sensitive situation, but I was hoping someone here might have a rough idea of what course might be best?