…local government and residents…sought compensation from…Zijin Mining [for damage caused by a broken in 2010]…Pursuing the matter through the judiciary won the approval of environmental lawyers…[but] legal experts say the sheer number of individual cases is too large for the court to handle. The cases could be consolidated into class-action suits, but doing this would cause the amount sought for each case to exceed the court's 20 million yuan limit…[A] government report…said Zijin was ultimately to blame…However…Zijin Mining argues that the Shihuadi dam had quality problems…At present, the Xinyi court is not close to apportioning blame. Villagers have not been able to confront Zijin in court…they have not seen their own legal representatives and have little knowledge of the case's progress…It has been more than 20 months since the disaster, but the case has stalled. By April 18, most of the cases had had a first-instance trial, but a final judgment was nowhere in sight.