About Jeanette L. Viau

Jeanette L. Viau
Partner, attorney

Jeanette is a partner at Viau & Kwasniewski.  She practices law in Los Angeles, California.  She is a very experienced, successful, pre-eminent lawyer.  She is AV rated and recognized as a top lawyer in her field that includes appellate level legal work.  Jeanette has 38 years of successful litigation, mediation, trial, and appellate experience.

From 1985 to 1998, Jeanette represented and defended insureds in liability cases and insurance companies in coverage and breach of contract/bad faith cases. She has litigated more than 500 insurance cases, attended and/or taken hundreds of depositions including experts, has substantial trial experience and has more than 20 unpublished decisions or writs. In addition, Jeanette is an accomplished insurance coverage lawyer and has written more than 1000 coverage opinions in her career. She has handled numerous appeals and in addition to her unpublished writs and appeals, she has three published decisions.

Since 1986, she has focused on insurance coverage and insurance bad faith litigation, analyzing whether a claim against the insured was covered under an insurance policy. Her insurance practice has covered the full range of litigation. Jeanette has been offering her expertise and experience to individuals and small companies involved in insurance disputes since 1998. Jeanette is admitted to practice in California State Courts, the Federal District Courts of California and the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Additional Background on Jeanette L. Viau

Jeanette graduated from UCLA in 1982. After graduating from UCLA, she attended Loyola University Law School. At Loyola, she was on the National Moot Court Team, and on the Honors Board, Scott Moot Court Team. Jeanette worked for one year for Superior Court Judge Jess Whitehill, and researched and wrote his law and motion decisions.

In 1985, Jeanette joined the firm of Pachter, Gold & Schaffer (later Schaffer & Lax when Arnold Gold joined the Bench). During her first year at Schaffer & Lax, she practiced in the area of personal injury defense. She had a three-week premises liability jury trial in her first year and obtained a defense verdict for her client. Starting in her second year of practice, she focused on insurance coverage and insurance “bad faith” defense, analyzing whether a claim against the insured individual or company was covered under an insurance policy.

While at Schaffer & Lax, Jeanette also handled numerous appeals, including the published decisions of Ahern v. Dillenback (1991) 1 Cal.App.4th 36 and Wilson v. Western Medical Review (1990) 222 Cal.App.3d 660.

In 1991, Jeanette joined the international law firm of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. While there, she handled many insurance coverage, “bad faith” and HMO cases on behalf of a diverse client base. She also handled an ERISA pre-emption case through appeal before the Second District Court of Appeal, where she obtained a successful appellate result for the client. In 1997, she was elevated to the position of Special Counsel.

Jeanette has authored numerous publications and articles on issues involving insurance coverage and “bad faith.” She has given numerous seminars on the topics of insurance law and liability issues.

In 1998, Jeanette left her position at Sedgwick, and began representing insureds and injured persons. In 2000, she started her own Los Angeles law firm with Gary K. Kwasniewski. Viau & Kwasniewski represent insureds and plaintiffs in insurance coverage/breach actions, serious personal injury and wrongful death matters.

As a founding partner at the firm of Viau & Kwasniewski, Jeanette drafted all of the briefs on behalf of our client, Ms. Zhang, that resulted in a unanimous victory at the California Supreme Court against the entire insurance industry.  See published Supreme Court decision, Zhang v. Superior Court , 57 Cal.4th 364  (2013)

In the last few years, she has focused on applying her legal appellate writing experience for the benefit of catastrophically injured plaintiffs and in wrongful death cases.

To contact Jeanette  (213) 842-8210, complete our online Contact Us Form, or send an email to jlv@vklawyers.com .

For additional information, please see the “What We Do” web page.

Contact Viau & Kwasniewski

For more information about attorney services at Viau & Kwasniewski, complete our Contact Us FormEmail us 
or call us at (213) 842-8164