28 U.S.C. § 479 — Information on litigation management and cost and delay reduction

(a) Within four years after this chapter became law, the Judicial Conference of the United States must prepare a full report covering all the plans it received under section 472(d) of this title. The Director of the Federal Judicial Center and the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts may suggest ideas for this report while it's being written. The Judicial Conference must then send copies of the report to the district courts and to the Judiciary Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives. (b) On an ongoing basis, the Judicial Conference must: study ways to improve litigation management and dispute-resolution services in the district courts; and recommend ways for district courts to improve those services. (c)(1) The Judicial Conference must prepare, and regularly update, a "Manual for Litigation Management and Cost and Delay Reduction," and send it to the district courts. The Directors of the Federal Judicial Center and the Administrative Office may suggest ideas for writing and revising it. (2) The Manual must be built after carefully reviewing the plans adopted under section 472 of this title, the demonstration program run under section 104 of the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990, and the pilot program run under section 105 of that Act. (3) The Manual must describe and analyze the litigation management techniques, cost and delay reduction methods, and alternative dispute resolution programs that the Judicial Conference, the Federal Judicial Center Director, and the Administrative Office Director consider most effective.