An Alameda County (Calif.) Superior Court judge has postponed a trial involving laid off Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees to deal with procedural issues and to allow the plaintiffs and the lab to meet for a mediation session in early February, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said yesterday. Judge Robert Freedman has rescheduled the trial for Feb. 27; the trial had been scheduled for Feb. 6. Instead, the lab and the plaintiffs will hold a second mediation session the week of Feb. 6, lawyer Gary Gwilliam said. The parties also met last summer for a mediation session without reaching a settlement. Gwilliam represents 130 former lab employees that say they were wrongfully fired during widespread layoffs in 2008. The trial will involve five of those employees that allege the lab discriminated against them because of their age when it shed 440 scientists, engineers, technicians and other support staff in 2008, citing a $280 million budget shortfall.