PORTLAND – A trial to decide whether it’s time to lift the AMHI consent decree has resumed after a six-week hiatus.

Superior Court Chief Justice Nancy Mills, who has heard four weeks of testimony, had told lawyers that they must finish up in three weeks.

The consent decree was signed in 1990 to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by patients and former patients over conditions at the Augusta Mental Health Institute, the state psychiatric hospital.

The state has been found in contempt twice for failing to live up to terms of the consent decree, but the King administration announced a year ago that, after 12 years, the state was in compliance.

Lawyers representing the nearly 4,000 former AMHI patients said the state has failed to meet the agreement’s requirements for individualized, flexible community mental health care in the least restrictive setting possible.

The state is wrapping up its presentation to the judge. Lawyers for the patients, who agree the Maine mental-health system has improved over the past decade, are expected to begin making their case this week.

Testimony resumed on Monday. After testimony is completed, Mills will decide whether the state has met its burden.