A judge who oversees the thousands of cases on the docket of the New York City Asbestos Litigation (NYCAL) court denied a motion Friday by the defendants' bar to halt all litigation while a new case management order is negotiated.

Manhattan Justice Peter Moulton said “the current state of NYCAL is not so rampantly unfair as to warrant suspending the trials of hundreds of cases where the plaintiffs have a mortal illness.”

However, Moulton called for “a top to bottom re-examination” of the case management order and named a committee of representatives from the plaintiff and defense bars to negotiate a new order, known as a CMO.