Blake Lively’s legal team has accused Justin Baldoni’s side of using “scorched earth litigation” to prevent people speaking out against alleged sexual harassment perpetrators.
Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, lawyers for Lively, shared a statement with Us Weekly on Thursday, April 10, accusing Baldoni of attempting to “tear down” laws that protect accusers.
“Mr. Baldoni has gone from monetizing a brand devoted to believing and supporting women, to leading the charge to tear down the very law that protects women who come forward about sexual assault, harassment and discrimination.” the statement to Us reads. “California’s sexual harassment privilege, AB 933, was enacted to stop perpetrators of sexual harassment from abusing defamation lawsuits to sue their accusers into oblivion.”
The legal back and forth between Lively and Baldoni, who worked together on It Ends With Us, began in December 2024 when Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and conducting a “smear campaign” against her. The same month, Baldoni, 41, launched separate lawsuits against The New York Times, who reported the allegations, and Lively, 37, alleging defamation among other claims. (All parties involved have vehemently denied all allegations against them.)
In Thursday’s statement, Hudson and Gottlieb added that Baldoni’s team’s legal tactics sent a “chilling message.”
“The chilling message scorched earth litigation sends to victims is stay silent or be destroyed,” the statement reads. “As demonstrated in the reply brief Ms. Lively filed today, the Wayfarer Parties’ attempt to slap Ms. Lively with a retaliatory lawsuit for her decision to speak out against the sexual harassment she experienced on set has not only failed miserably but exposes them to substantial economic damages. Ms. Lively will continue to show all victims that they are not alone, that they do not have to stay silent, and that the law is on their side.”
Lively’s team filed a reply brief on Thursday, April 10 as they attempt to have the lawsuit against the actress dismissed, claiming in documents seen by Us Weekly that “Wayfarer Parties have tied themselves in knots trying to state a defamation claim against Ms. Lively that is not barred by the statute of limitations or wholly contained within her Legal Complaints, which they concede cannot form the basis of any actionable claims.”
Late last month, Lively’s lawyers filed the motion to dismiss while calling Baldoni’s claims “vengeful and rambling” and an abuse of the legal system. The paperwork argued that the California Civil Code Section 47.1 prohibits retaliatory lawsuits tied to public disclosures of sexual harassment.
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, responded to the motion on Thursday, April 3, by defending Baldoni’s complaint, which allegedly provides details of “Lively’s calculated efforts first to extort and manipulate” Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios production team “into ceding total control over the film It Ends with Us and then to defame and scapegoat them when her plan backfired.”
Update: 1/7/24, 12 p.m. ET — Bryan Freedman, who is Justin Baldoni‘s lawyer, issued the following statement in response to Lively’s team: “It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending the New York Times grossly edited documents prior […]
“Ms. Lively and her circle of Hollywood elites cannot prevent my clients from exercising their constitutional right to petition the court to clear their names from her false and harmful claims,” read Freedman’s statement on April 3. “What Ms. Lively is attempting to do is to set a dangerous precedent by barring the courthouse doors to my clients and punishing them for having their day in court, a right protected by the First Amendment.”
The response continued: “This right protects not only Mr. Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties in this particular case, but all Americans in the future who have false accusations levied against them and seek relief from our justice system. This must stop here, and we will continue to fight against this blatant attempt to block access to the court system and to weaken our nation’s Constitution to serve those who are in the position of power.”
