NEW YORK: American companies face more than a legal bill if they get involved in litigation without communication - risk losing 50% of their customers.

That is the bottom line from a survey commissioned by Hill & Knowlton.

The survey - conducted over the last month by Opinion Research Corporation - found that the public mistrusts companies, a situation exacerbated by failure to communicate during a trial.

A total of 2606 interviews found that 62% believe businesses do everything to ...