Attorney fees as damages
Kevin Kerveng Tung, PC v. Janet Yijuan Fou
In brief
- Where it stands
- Dismissed
Petition denied.
- What it’s about
- Kevin Kerveng Tung and his law firm challenged a $1,311,832.94 award in Janet Fou’s legal-malpractice case, arguing that fees from later proceedings could not count as damages without proof of an underlying loss.
- Who it affects
- The Supreme Court did not change the $1,311,832.94 award, but it did not rule on whether the award was correct.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.

What it's about
The Supreme Court refused to hear the case (denied review), so it did not decide those arguments.
The dispute arose from a New Jersey legal-malpractice case tied to an uncontested divorce and later divorce-related proceedings.
Question presented
1. Whether a plaintiff in a legal malpractice action can manufacture damages merely by commencing litigation and incurring attorney fees as her sole damages, without proving any underlying substantive loss in the alleged malpractice case. 2. Whether, in a legal-malpractice action arising from an uncontested divorce matter, an attorney's fee award of $1,311,832.94 may be affirmed as recoverable damages where the Appellate Division found that the Plaintiff sustained no financial damages in the underlying uncontested divorce malpractice case other than subsequent legal fees incurred in later proceedings, to vacate an uncontested divorce judgment and the legal fees incurred by plaintiff for subsequent contested divorce action, notwithstanding New Jersey's rule that malpractice damages are compensatory and may include only losses proximately caused by the alleged malpractice. 3. Whether affirmance of an attorney's fee award of $1,311,832.94 under these circumstances violates the due process protections secured by the Fourteenth Amendment and by Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, where Petitioner contends the award operates as a non-compensatory deprivation of liberty and property interests untethered to proven loss. 4. Whether, in reviewing the constitutionality of such an attorney’s-fee award, a court may treat the dismissal of related attorney-disciplinary grievances as irrelevant to the fairness and reliability of imposing a seven-figure fee judgment based on the attorney’s handling of the underlying uncontested divorce case. 5. Whether the Supreme Court of New Jersey's denial of certification warrants review where Petitioner contends the decision below presents issues of general public importance and calls for the Court's supervisory intervention, including the proper application of New Jersey's limited exceptions to the American Rule in attorney-malpractice matters and the constitutional constraints on extraordinary fee awards.
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
AI analysis generated: Decision Record
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
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Brief added: Petition
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.