A a judge yesterday ordered the Archdiocese of Milwaukee must come up with $1.35 million to pay lawyers involved in its ongoing bankruptcy case, at least a portion of the many more millions they're owed, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today. The lawyers and other professionals involved haven't been paid since the archdiocese won a suspension of payments more than a year ago, saying that it barely had enough money to continue operations. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley at a hearing yesterday also granted the archdiocese's request Tuesday to return the case to mediation for a possible consensual resolution to the long, complex and fractious proceeding. Judge Kelley gave the parties 28 days to submit statements for the mediator, who ideally would begin the process in early September. A prior mediation effort in 2012 failed to reach a settlement.
