1.   Because liability rates are not similarly adjusted, the overall cost of insuring a sport utility vehicle can actually be cheaper now than insuring a similarly priced car.

2.   Besieged builders say they are hammered by frivolous lawsuits that have caused liability insurance rates to skyrocket, threatening the construction of affordable housing.

3.   Both insurers have been raising liability rates for such vehicles while cutting those for cars and mini-vans.

4.   Advocates for the vast majority of nursing home residents, who receive Medicaid insurance, said the idea is to lower liability rates by improving the quality of care.

5.   Allstate, in particular, publicly questioned whether it made business sense to adjust liability rates by make and model.

6.   But insurers have long charged the same liability rates for all, using the profits from cars to cover losses from the bigger, higher-riding sport utilities.

7.   Conversely, drivers of cars and mini-vans who would benefit from lower liability rates have said little.

8.   He envisioned, he said, a new system of liability rates that would reflect the greater damage and injuries that a big vehicle can inflict.

9.   It is not clear how fast competition will force insurers nationwide to adjust liability rates by model.

10.   It raised liability rates for some big bruisers because they cause so much damage to whatever they hit.