Justin Baldoni is hoping that the court will throw out Blake Lively’s $161 million lawsuit.
With only months to go before their trial early next year, the clock is ticking.
Team Baldoni is arguing that Lively cannot prove the allegations against him — or how much they cost her.
The judge tossed Baldoni’s lawsuits. Will Lively’s get the same treatment?
Justin Baldoni is asking the court to dismiss Blake Lively’s lawsuit
Justin Baldoni wants the court to throw out the $161 million lawsuit that Blake Lively has brought against him.
Page Six obtained documents showing that, on Thursday, November 13, the director filed a formal request to dismiss the lawsuit.
Last year, Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate, aiding and abetting, defamation, and conspiracy.
Or, more simply put, she says that he sexually harassed her during the production of It Ends With Us. She filed a complaint during filming. In response, Lively alleges, he launched a smear campaign against her — and leveled his own massive lawsuit against her.
Baldoni’s team is asking the court to toss out her suit, claiming that she cannot prove her claims.
Additionally, Team Baldoni alleges that Lively cannot prove any claims pertaining to her contract (or violations thereof).
The argument here is that the actress “was an independent contractor, not an employee.”
That is a meaningful distinction in several respects. But it is unclear how impactful that will be in this case.
Baldoni is also seeking to challenge “several aspects” of Lively’s claims on damages.
Remember, her $161 million lawsuit tallies up a substantial quantity of lost income due to the smear campaign’s lingering harm to her reputation.
He believes that any jury would side with him, not her
In this new filing, Justin Baldoni claims that “no reasonable jury” would side with Blake Lively and find him guilty.
He believes that the actress cannot prove damages for lost profits with “reasonable certainty.”
(Lively’s suit stems from not only lost profits as an actress, but also damage to her other ventures, including her beverage business)
Baldoni argues that financial damages cannot be “speculative, possible, or imaginary.”
That is a pretty standard debate in a lawsuit over damages.
Presumably, Lively’s team has the numbers to explain the lawsuit’s numbers — based upon her history of raking in major paychecks and, of course, the social media campaign that aimed to destroy her.
Baldoni’s team claims that Lively’s lawsuit “lacks standing to assert claims for lost profits or royalties.”
His attorneys went on to insist that she “cannot recover speculative lost profits.”
Those are, of course, things for the court to decide.
But Baldoni is clearly hoping that the court will find fully in his favor well before they go to trial in March 2026.
How will the court rule?
Obviously, we do not know what the judge will decide.
However, it seems likely that at least some of what Justin Baldoni’s team is arguing is a matter for pre-trial hearings and for the trial early next year, when Blake Lively can make her case in full.
That said, we are not legal scholars. And even they can miss the mark when it comes to predicting what a court will do.
There is little question that Lively and Baldoni both have a lot riding on this protracted legal battle.
Unless the court dismisses the lawsuit (and even if it does, there will be appeals down the road), this conflict isn’t going away any time soon.