Blake Lively hasn’t put her legal battle with Justin Baldoni behind her, as she is now seeking damages for the defamation lawsuit he filed against her.
If you recall, the Gossip Girl alum, 38, and her It Ends With Us co-star and director, 42, finally reached a settlement last month, ending the main legal dispute before it could go to trial. Judge Lewis J. Liman had previously dismissed Baldoni’s separate $400M lawsuit against Lively, in which he accused her of defamation and other claims after she publicly accused him of sexual harassment.
Now, following that settlement, Lively is reportedly asking the court to award her legal fees, as well as triple damages and punitive damages, arguing that Baldoni’s lawsuit was an unlawful retaliatory action under California law. Keep reading to find out more…
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Blake Lively Is Reportedly Seeking Damages From Justin Baldoni
The Another Simple Favor star's legal team reportedly appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, June 1st, arguing that Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, violated a California law designed to protect people who publicly speak about alleged sexual assault, harassment, or misconduct from retaliatory lawsuits.
According to reports, attorneys for both sides debated whether a California law designed to protect people who report sexual misconduct applies to the case. Lively's lawyers argue that Baldoni's defamation lawsuit was exactly the type of retaliatory legal action the statute was created to prevent. Baldoni's attorney, Ellyn Garofalo, disagreed, arguing that Lively should not be able to seek damages under the law after agreeing to settle the broader lawsuit before it reached trial.
Garofalo reportedly told Judge Lewis J. Liman that Lively was "seeking an end run" around a trial that never took place because the parties resolved the case beforehand. She also noted that the dispute was settled without Baldoni or Wayfarer Studios paying any portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages that had previously been sought.
Blake Lively's Lawyers Say California Law Still Applies
Lively's attorney, Mike Gottlieb, pushed back against those arguments, claiming the issue stems from Baldoni's own legal strategy earlier in the case. According to Gottlieb, Baldoni's team previously asked the court to apply California law to the dispute and should therefore be bound by the protections contained within that law. "They asked this court to apply substantive California law – now it has to apply 47.1," Gottlieb reportedly said.
At one point during the hearing, Judge Liman suggested that Lively could effectively end the dispute by withdrawing her request for damages under the statute. "Your client has the ability to end this by saying, I'm not seeking – I'm not telling you to do that, this is an interesting legal question," the judge told Gottlieb.
However, Lively's attorney maintained that the court must still decide whether the California statute applies and whether his client is entitled to recover damages and legal fees. At the time of writing, Judge Liman has not yet ruled on the issue, but we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for any developments…
