BILLINGS -- After years of delay, the civil lawsuit filed by a former Billings city prosecutor who claims she was wrongfully fired has been scheduled for trial.

Attorneys for the city and Moira D'Alton met with Judge Russell Fagg on Friday to set a deadline for pre-trial motions and hearings and a final trial date. The judge ordered the case scheduled for trial on Aug. 8.

D'Alton filed the wrongful termination claim against the city of Billings in March 2004 seeking $50,000 in damages for defamation and an unspecified amount for lost wages, physical and emotional distress and the loss of her professional reputation and standing in the community.

D'Alton was fired in December 2003 after working six years as an assistant city attorney. In October 2004, D'Alton joined the Yellowstone County Public Defender's Office as a criminal defense attorney, a position she continues to hold.

The lawsuit was initially filed in U.S. District Court, but the parties agreed to move it to state court in October 2005. It was at that time that the case stalled when the sides agreed to await the outcome of a federal lawsuit filed against Moira D'Alton and the city of Billings by D'Alton's ex-husband, William D'Alton.

William D'Alton's lawsuit claimed his ex-wife used her connections with the city's attorney office and Police Department to have him falsely accused and arrested for domestic violence. That lawsuit was filed in September 2003. It was settled last May when the city's insurance company agreed to pay William D'Alton $250,000.

In June, Moira D'Alton's attorney, Robert Stephens, filed a motion for summary judgment against the city in the wrongful termination case, sparking new action in the lawsuit that had sat idle for nearly two years.

In response, the city's attorneys, Harlan Krogh and Michele Jensen, asked the judge for more time to prepare and gather evidence in order to respond to the summary judgment motion, which seeks to have a judge rule in D'Alton's favor without a jury trial.

In July, Fagg issued an order setting a trial date of March 17, 2008. On Nov. 15, Stephens and the city's civil defense attorneys agreed to ask for more time, and Fagg set a new scheduling conference that happened on Friday.

"Please be advised that requests for continuances are not received favorably, and, unless very good cause (i.e. read extraordinary) is shown, will not be granted,'' the judge wrote in the new scheduling order.