In brief: Rate hikes for conditional fee insurance

Insurance premiums for the Law Society's Accident Line Protect (ALP) conditional fee insurance scheme are to rise from 1 October. ALP is to split its insurance scheme for personal injury work into a two-tier system, charging £95.68 for road traffic accident cases and £161.20 for all other PI cases. Previously, all premiums for PI work were £85. An ALP spokeswoman said the changes were intended to make the system fairer since road traffic accident cases were the most common. The premiums hike was partly due to an increase in court costs during the past couple of years, she added.