"I am optimistic," the lawyer for the trust fund's trustee tells Rolling Stone

Nick Reiner is a step closer to accessing a portion of his $1.7 million trust fund to rehire prominent defense attorney Alan Jackson as he fights charges that he fatally stabbed his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner. At a court hearing Friday, his lawyer announced that the dispute over the funds would move to private settlement talks.

“We’re happy to report that at your honor’s direction, we met and conferred about mediation and settlement, and all parties have now scheduled a global mediation,” Nick’s trust lawyer, Anita P. Wu, told Judge Ruben Garcia in downtown Los Angeles. Wu said the mediation was set for Dec. 16 before retired Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff, who previously oversaw Michael Jackson’s estate. Any settlement would require Garcia’s approval.

At the hearing, a lawyer for trustee Jodi Montgomery, who has been withholding the funds, also asked the judge to authorize payments into Reiner’s jail commissary account.…