Craig L. Kelley

As a blue-collar kid from Waterloo, NE Craig Kelley grew up around auto service stations and race tracks.

“I grew up in a family that raced lots of things. My family was in the service station business and our passion was racing. When I was in ninth grade, my parents bought Sunset Speedway. The great thing about the speedway business was that it allowed me to go to school in the winter and then work in the summer to make enough money to keep going to school.”

After graduating from Northwest Missouri State University with a business degree, he planned to bring a law degree from Creighton University back to the family business, but success in law school and trial law competitions led to a law clerk job while in law school with a big law firm representing insurance companies.

“I was on the other side of what we do now,” said Kelley, “and I just never was too thrilled about celebrating those wins when somebody that was injured got nothing or less than they should, and were left in a lurch after a trial or verdict or a settlement.

“I decided that maybe with my background and with my philosophy of life in general, that it would be better career to go over to the plaintiff’s side and represent injured people. I searched around and sent resumes to some of the succesful plaintiff’s firms in Omaha and ended up with John Inserra and his father and that’s where I have been since graduating from law school in 1986.”

Craig’s practice emphasizes all areas of personal injury law, with a large emphasis on vehicle, motorcycle and bicycle related cases and claims. The firm is designated legal counsel of the Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.), the Nebraska State H.O.G. Rally, and is also the designated legal counsel for most motorcycle chapters in the surrounding area.

“Our other new area of expertise is bad medical devices and pharmaceuticals/drugs, either as a defect in design or manufacturing,” said Kelley. “Medical device and drug liability began big with bad breast implants, bad birth control devices and bad drug side-effects. There’s been a lot of drug cases in the last 5-10 years, and these cases are national multi-distraict litigation groups that require specific expertise.  Drug companies rush to take products to the market and they don’t do the testing they used to do. We are one of few firms in Nebraska and Iowa that deal with these kind of cases on a national level.”

Craig and his wife, Kerry, a Deputy Director at STRATCOM Headquarters (Offutt Air Base), reside in the Dundee area of Omaha and have two college sons, Christopher and Brendan, and a high school daughter, Caitlin. Craig is also the Founder and Principal of Kelley Auto Racing Management Advisors (K.A.R.M.A.), former General Manager of Nebraska Raceway Park (now I-80 Speedway), former co-owner of Omaha’s long-time NASCAR race track, Sunset Speedway and Founder of the Dundee Chain Gang Cycling Club. He enjoys riding on his Harley Street Glide, Bicycling, golfing, watching the sports of his alma maters and being involved with his Saint Margaret Mary parish’s athletic programs and annual events.