Sen. Carl Levin. Photo: Photo by Diego Radzinschi/ALM

A federal judge in Michigan plans on Thursday to appoint former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin as a mediator in lawsuits over the Flint water contamination crisis.

U.S. District Judge Judith Levy of the Eastern District of Michigan also plans to appoint former Wayne County Chief Judge Pro Tem Pamela Harwood, along with Levin, as a “facilitative mediator,” according to a notice filed this week. Levin, a Democrat, was a U.S. senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015.

Wayne Mason of Drinker Biddle & Reath in Dallas, who represents Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc., one of the engineering defendants sued by Flint residents, said the use of a neutral was a “normal evolution” in “a complex litigation matter such as this.”

“The facilitator is to try to see if there's a resolution that makes any sense, and Judge Levy believes we should be exploring all of this while we're defending the case,” he said.

Neither Levin nor Harwood responded to requests for comment.

Theodore Leopold, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and Michael Pitt, of Pitt McGehee Palmer & Rivers in Royal Oak, Michigan, lead plaintiffs attorneys in the class action, said in a statement that they were encouraged by the appointments. “We hope that this is the first step by all of the parties to work together on a just resolution for the citizens of Flint.”

Napoli Shkolnik's Hunter Shkolnik in New York, who filed a separate master complaint on behalf of individual cases brought by Flint residents last month, said he also plans to discuss bellwether trials at Thursday's hearing. “Like any mass tort, we want a trial,” he said. “We want a trial, and as soon as possible.”

Lawyers for the government defendants, which include officials of the city of Flint, the state of Michigan and the state's Department of Environmental Quality, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did an attorney for Veolia North America, another engineering defendant.

The decision comes as Levy plans to hear arguments on Thursday from city and state officials over whether discovery should be stayed. Government officials, many of whom have been criminally charged, have raised concerns that producing discovery would violate their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. State and city officials, who argue that Flint was an “arm of the state,” also alleged that their sovereign immunity defenses under the 11th Amendment hadn't been waived.

The engineering defendants also weighed in, arguing that government officials shouldn't be granted a stay while they were forced to produce discovery.

Plaintiffs, in response, called the immunity claims “another excuse to delay this case.”

Levy gave lawyers until an hour before the Thursday hearing to object to her mediator picks. In an amended notice filed on Wednesday, Levy gave more detail about Harwood, who was born in Flint, where her father was the water plant manager until he retired in 1971. Now in Bingham Farms, Michigan, Harwood was a judge on Michigan's Third Judicial Circuit Court in Wayne County from 1989 to 2004, serving as chief judge pro tem for a year.

The lawsuits were filed after government officials in 2014 temporarily shifted Flint's water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, despite studies warning that its corrosive nature could risk lead from old pipes leaching into the drinking water. The cases have slogged through the courts, mostly stuck in jurisdictional disputes.

A consolidated class action complaint was filed on Sept. 29 against 18 current and former government officials and professional negligence against two engineering firms. They're seeking a fund on behalf of 100,000 Flint residents to compensate for medical monitoring, property damages and other costs stemming from the contaminated water.

The defendants filed motions to dismiss last month, arguing that the plaintiffs had failed to state their claims. The state defendants also brought additional dismissal arguments based on federal pre-emption and immunity grounds. Lockwood and Veolia also challenged the negligence and punitive damages claims against them in separate dismissal motions.