This special issue of Sweet & Maxwell's Journal of Personal Injury Litigation consists of reports from the four sessions of the APIL/FOIL joint conference, held on 12 October 1998. The issue offers suggestions for best practice for PI practitioners, focusing on co-operation between claimant and defendant representatives, and looks at future developments in rules relating to the areas listed below: * Protocols - the practicalities, including pre-action protocols * Negotiation - an alternative to ADR, including offers to settle * Experts, including joint instructions and the single expert * Rehabilitation and retraining, including vocational rehabilitation, and bottom up/top down structured settlements.