Levinson Axelrod will have to wait until next year to try to shut down a Web site that a former associate has been using to trash the firm for months.

At oral argument on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson said she would hold off deciding the Edison, N.J., personal injury firm’s request for temporary restraints until Jan. 11, when the parties will return to her Trenton courtroom for a hearing on Edward Heyburn’s motion to dismiss the complaint.