David Peter Osborne

Biography

I trained and qualified with a City of London firm specialising in shipping and marine law and litigation. I dealt with shipboard personal injury claims acting in the main for Claimants. The claims often had complex jurisdictional issues. I assisted in the Herald of Free Enterprise Formal Inquiring representing Capt Lewry and acted for the families of the lost crew in the first Formal Inquiry into the loss of MV Derbyshire. I gained experience of large scale litigation. Following a move to DAC (now DAC Beachcroft) I handled large scale marine insurance and general insurance, re-insurance, and re-re-insurance treaty litigation mainly in the Lloyds market acting for underwriters. These included negligence claims against and defending claims against brokers and Lloyds managing agents. I gained an in depth knowledge of insurance claims, underwriting, insurers’ response to claims, and underwriter’s assessment of risk both of the insured risk or peril and of litigation.
On moving from London I spent 10 years conducting Claimant Personal Injury Litigation before moving to Fraser Dawbarns in 2003 as a senior civil litigator. In 2007 I took over the Claims and Complaints handling role within Fraser Dawbarns. I developed the role into what is now a recognised non-fee earning role. I have gained an in depth knowledge of all aspects of professional negligence and regulatory and compliance issues, and most areas of practice. I am well versed in corresponding with the Legal Ombudsman and have a high “success” rate of the Ombudsman upholding the first tier decision