Emergency brake will not engage!

Hello there all.  Here's the issue I am having. I took my car yesterday to get it inspected.  Well, it failed!  When I purchased the car used, the emergency brake wouldn't go up but one click.  And that was with all of my force. When I went to disengage the brake, it seemed to get stuck as if the brake was still on but the bar was down.  Not sure if that makes sense. The two times that I've had the car inspected, they never checked it. Well, this time, he did.  So now I have to figure out how to get it to engage and disengage inexpensively.  Does anyone have suggestions as to what I may try to fix this on my own??  I would appreciate any suggestions since I only have a couple of weeks to get this taken care of before I am driving illegally.

You need to find out if it is in the lever, cable, or rear brakes.  One way is to have someone pull up on the handle while you watch the cable underneath the car.  If it tightens up but you can't pull the handle up to latch, then the adjuster is too tight.  That is at the base of the lever.  If it does not move, then the lever is probably the problem.