SAN DIEGO — Donald J. Trump’s lawyers agreed on Thursday to enter settlement talks in a class-action fraud lawsuit involving the president-elect and Trump University, now defunct, raising the possibility of a quick end to the six-year-old case just before it goes to trial.

Daniel Petrocelli, Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer on the case, also asked to delay the trial to early next year, saying Mr. Trump needed time to work on the transition to the presidency.

“The good news is that he was elected president,” Mr. Petrocelli told Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel of Federal District Court. “The bad news is that he has even more work to do now.”

Mr. Trump has accused Judge Curiel, who was born in Indiana, of bias in the case because of his Mexican heritage.