The scheme is due to open for applications next month but it is not clear who will fund the payments.
Stormont and Westminster have been in a long-running row over who is responsible.
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal said it was giving the parties four weeks to find a solution.
It said if that was not possible, the case would be relisted to include Stormont’s Department of Finance as an additional notice party.
The scheme was initially passed at Westminster when devolution in the North of Ireland had collapsed.
Since power-sharing returned in January 2020, estimates from Stormont for the cost of the scheme have been suggested to run to as high as £800 million.
The Executive has argued that Westminster should help fund it, as it is a UK-wide scheme and people injured outside of the North of Ireland will be able to apply.
It will run for two or three decades and payments are to be backdated to 2014, when it was first agreed.
Last year, a judge ruled that the Executive Office was acting unlawfully in delaying Troubles pensions in a bid to force Westminster to foot the bill.
Stormont’s Department of Justice was then designated to administer the scheme.
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