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Asalamu A'laykum wa RahmatuAllahi wa Barakatuhu

I suppose it will be obvious from my question that I have not studied much comparative fiqh. My question is this, how do we determine what the rulings for the four madhabs, when there are so many complications, for one, each madhab has famous scholars, some of whom joined madhabs after the founders had already died, and those scholars would hold opinions contrary to those of the madhab. Were their (Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafi'i, Ahmed ibn Hanbal, Imam Malik) books of fiqh authentically recorded? For example, I read that Imam Malik asked his students to burn his books of fiqh after his death.

Another problem I have come across, it seems to me that the scholars of modern day, don't really know the positions of the four madahib regarding fiqhi issues because they are all conveying conflicting information. To give an example, a friend of mine told me that all four of the madahib hold that niqab is fard, then sheikh Saeed says that three of the four madahib say niqab is fard, then I spoke with another sheikh who said only the shafi'i madhab holds that niqab is fard. Now I'm living in a country which follows the shafi'i madhab and when my husband spoke with the sheikh at our local masjid, he said that niqab is sunnah in the shafi'i madhab and only the hanbali madhab hold the niqab to be fard. The first Shekh attended University of Madinah, the second attended Al Azhar, and the third Sheikh I presume attended University of Jordan. It's obvious the three universities are teaching different viewpoints from the same madhabs, what's going on?