Someone is probably either incompetent or receiving a bribe. Alternatively, they may have purposely chosen(raffle) him since he's overloaded, in order to delay things. According to David Innes, they are waiting for the MTD decision, so I doubt that they are negotiating a settlement. He wouldn’t say they are waiting for a decision if there were an ongoing settlement. imo
Agree with your "spidey sense". The parties would have represented to the jugge that they believed settlement discussions were close to being successful & additional time would likely be fruitful!