The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is suing 10 former directors and executives of the building products company, alleging they made misleading public statements about the company's ability to fully compensate asbestos victims in 2001.
The case began in the NSW Supreme Court last week, with ASIC lining up almost 60 witnesses to provide evidence.
With 25 barristers representing the 13 parties involved in the case, it was expected it would take until Christmas for each witness to appear and be cross-examined.
But barristers representing several of the defendants have not sought to question any of the witnesses who have appeared to date, and most witnesses have not spent more than one hour in the stand.
The court has received written evidence from the majority of the witnesses, many of whom also gave evidence at a NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into James Hardie's asbestos compensation funding in 2004.
ASIC's barrister Anthony Bannon SC on Wednesday told the court: "We are fast running out of witnesses."
Peter Wood, barrister for former James Hardie director Geoff O'Brien, said it appeared ASIC's presentation of evidence could be completed before the end of the month.
"We ... recognise that this case is proceeding with great dispatch beyond anybody's expectation, and if Mr Bannon is right in his surmise, within three weeks, or perhaps four weeks, the plaintiff's case will finish, rather than three or four months," Wood told the court.
The case has been adjourned until next Monday.
