Lawyer Took My Money And Stopped Responding

Jurisdiction: New Jersey

In early March of this year (2024), I paid an attorney a flat fee to prepare a legal document for me. I paid up front in full, as required by the attorney. This attorney runs his practice by himself. As far as I know, he has no other attorneys working with him. He has a secretary (and perhaps a paralegal--I'm not sure).

After I paid him and signed his agreement for services, he said he'd get to work right away on preparing my document. Six days after that, I check in with him and he says (via email) that he has a family emergency. He says a close family member is in the hospital, but my document is ready and he will send it overnight. I never received any document from him.

That was in the first week of March. I've called and emailed numerous times between then and now, but to date there's no response from the attorney. He's not responding to email nor phone/voicemail. His secretary says he had a death in the family and is traveling overseas, but will be returning soon. Every time I have spoken to her, she confirmed that he is still practicing law and she claimed to send a text message to him about my case. However, I have still not received any response from him.

It has now been a total of 42 days since I last heard from this attorney. I am in urgent need of getting the legal document that I paid him to prepare.

TLDR: Lawyer took my money and is not responding for 42 days and counting. His secretary says he's experienced a family emergency.

Questions:

1) Given that this attorney works alone and assuming he's being honest about his family emergency, how long is it appropriate to wait for his response? Is 42 days long enough of a wait, or should I continue to wait?

2) What recourse does a client have if their attorney just totally stops responding after collecting payment? Could I complain to the state bar association? Could I take him to small claims court? Something else?

3) His agreement has a clause saying that I may be sued for defamation if I do anything online or offline "to disrespect, embarrass or defame this law office, including any form of libel, slander, negative reviews, negative comments..." Is such a clause enforceable? Does that mean I cannot post a negative review or send a complaint to the state bar association (if the time comes for that)?

Thanks very much for your help and advice.