Inserra’s Early Work Still Cited

By Shiloh Todorov
The Daily Record

Any personal injury lawyer can tell a story about the first time a jury awarded money, but John Inserra’s early work is often recounted by other lawyers and judges.

Inserra won $25,000 in a slip-and-fall case and it is still frequently excerpted in case law: Tichenor v. Lohaus.

“The case and the circumstances around it have been cited a number of times … because it laid some of the foundation for judges to allow slip/fall cases to go to a jury. It amplifies the Open and Obvious doctrine,” said Inserra. “I just think about the circumstances and laugh.”

Not long after graduating from Creighton Law School and joining his father, Joseph Inserra, in practice, Inserra argued the case of an injury in a parking lot. His case stated that the client was hurt because of mud on the ramp entering the lot, and the hazard was the only right-of-way to leave or enter the business. Judge Jerry Gitnick allowed the case to go to the jury, mostly – Inserra said – because he’d been reversed on a slip-and-fall case earlier the same day. Judge Gitnik overruled the motion for directed verdict at the end of the plaintiff’s case. After the jury’s verdict, Judge Gitnik was so unsure of his actions, Inserra said, that he wanted him to settle the case before it got to the appeals court. Only a minimal offer was made for settlement, Inserra said. It was considerably less than the ultimate award, so the case was not settled.

“The other side appealed to the Supreme Court, which affirmed it. There’s a whole lot of luck involved in some this stuff,” Inserra said.

Inserra’s career has developed into almost exclusively personal injury work, but it didn’t start that way. Working with his father in the late ’70s, the two Inserras had a generalized practice. It’s something Inserra credits with helping him find his focus and his passion.

“We’d do a little personal injury, some criminal, some estates, real estate contracts. I think in this day and age, where firms are so specialized, a lot of young lawyers have never done that. They don’t go to probate court, county court, do collections. It’s great experience and you find out what you want to do and what you’re good at,” Inserra said.

Craig Kelley joined the Inserras in 1986, forming what is now known as Inserra & Kelley. Inserra said he has worked to form the kind of practice that has time to answer questions and listen to clients.

“For a lot of these people, they have an injury and sometimes it is so disruptive to their lives and families. Some lose jobs. They don’t know where to turn and they need to know what to expect and when to expect it. They need direction if they can’t go back to work. They need to know that if you lose a job, you can get assistance through the state for vocational rehab,” Inserra said, likening some of his conversations to therapy.

With that kind of hands-on approach in mind, Inserra said he chose to do his primary advertising on a national attorney-finder website called injuryboard.com. He contributes to a blog there, and he said the site’s overall approach matches closely what he does in his office.

“I like that it truly doesn’t say, ‘Hire me, hire me, hire me.’ It is more informational. If you give people information, they can make a decision whether they need a lawyer, what kind, what expertise. As a lawyer, the marketing piece is information. What kind of case do they have? By the time I finish telling them what kind of case they have, most people realize they can’t do it themselves,” Inserra said.

Inserra married in 1985 and has two stepchildren and six grandchildren, all in Omaha. He and his wife, Beth, an interior designer, recently moved from their Dundee home into an Old Market condominium.

“Our location shapes our free time,” he said. “All of the things you did when you owned a house, you don’t have to do anymore, like mowing and landscaping. And there’s so much going on downtown.”

Beth and John are enthusiastic bicyclists, and one of their favorite combinations of their pastime and their address is riding over the pedestrian bridge to join up with Iowa’s miles of trails.

John’s other hobbies include golf, movies, plays and cooking.

He is a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association, the Nebraska Trial Lawyers Association, and past member of the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys, as well as the Nebraska State and Omaha Bar Associations.