Clients think their lawyers are too reluctant to predict the outcome of litigation or let them know about costs, research has found.

A survey by City firm DLA of 100 in-house legal advisers and other decision-makers in the UK's largest 500 companies found that a high proportion of clients were disappointed with their external lawyers.

Slightly fewer than half of all respondents said their lawyers were unwilling to predict the final outcome of litigation at the outset.

Almost 40% said their lawyers 'know the law but are unaware of commercial realities', while a third were not kept well informed on costs incurred.

DLA's head of litigation, David Gray, said: 'The lawyer's role is to come off the fence and give advice on a dispute in the context of commercial reality and this includes costs.'

Rachel Rothwell