DES MOINES - A Polk County judge has set a Dec. 3 deadline for the parties involved in a multimillion-dollar civil damage case stemming from a June 2006 helicopter crash during the filming of "The Final Season" movie to try to settle their differences via mediation.

District Judge Donna Paulsen appointed Des Moines attorney Dwight James to conduct confidential mediation sessions.

Last summer, a Polk County jury decided that pilot error was primarily the cause of a fatal accident that occurred during aerial filming of "The Final Season" - a movie about the 1991 Norway High School baseball championship won during the school's last year of existence.

The panel awarded $7.2 million in damages to Kathryn Schlotzhauer, whose husband, Roland, 50, a cameraman from Lenexa, Kan., died on June 30, 2006, when the helicopter snagged overhead utility lines and crashed in a cornfield along Highway 151.

The jury also awarded $4.16 million in damages to movie co-producer Tony Wilson and his wife. Wilson was seriously injured as a passenger in the Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter flown by Richard Green of Hudson.

Jurors ruled that Green, who owned Ritel Copter Service, "The Final Season" company, and two of its producers were at fault for the fatal mishap. The jury assessed Green 75 percent of the blame for Schlotzhauer's death and 100 percent fault for Wilson's injuries. They also ruled the movie makers were 25 percent responsible in Schlotzhauer's death.