Trial date management as a cost-management technique mentioned for legal departments

An advertising supplement by CT Tymetrix in Corp. Counsel, Sept. 2010 at 3, reels off 11 methods by which legal departments manage external legal costs. Experienced, managers of departments know about all of them and will find nothing new, except one: “trial date management.”

Trials are so rare that it seems this is an odd method to control costs, but it certainly makes sense that a logjam of trials at the same time would tax the in-house litigation managers and possibly lead to higher bills from the litigation counsel let loose on their own. Aside from pile-up consequences, I do not know what “trial date management” does to reduce spending.