Liabilities for corporation's debts- help please :(

Hi! My husband was offered by his cousin to manage a company. Nothing was disclosed about the company's state and only when he started did he realize that the company is in debt and the monthly collection most of the time is not enough for operations. Along the way, the cousin turned over majority of the shares to my husband I think to "motivate" him to improve the business conditions (not sure actually). But the company had no assets, has existing loans and there was no way to fund new businesses or sign up new clients. Everything went downhill early this year until the company totally ceased operations. The last collection from the client turned out to be insufficient to settle all credit so a huge chunk of it was left unsettled- worth almost 1M. My husband signed all post dated checks and is the major shareholder of the corporation. The cousin refused to help. The company has some equipment that may or may not have some value (the original price of the equipment is high but they are old and the models almost phased out). But more or less they are not able to liquidate any significant property. Is my husband liable for all the debt? Will filing for bankruptcy help or will it only at best help in negotiating payment plans (plus we cant even afford to hire a bankruptcy lawyer so there's that)? What's the best action to take?