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Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Court, Celebrity
Phoebe Tonks
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Court, Celebrity
A district judge overseeing the bitter legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, has hit the star with an unexpected setback after he dismissed 10 of 13 claims levelled against her former co-star.
U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed the majority of Lively’s claims, which included harassment, defamation and conspiracy on April 2, but did allow a narrower set of allegations, including breach of contract and two retaliation-related claims, to continue to trial.
Judge Liman ruled that some of Lively’s claims could not proceed as a matter of law — including those dependent on her being classified as an employee — yet other claims, including her retaliation-related allegations, were sufficiently supported to proceed to trial.
The ruling dismissed Lively’s Title VII retaliation claim and California Labor Code retaliation claim, as well as certain claims against individual defendants. It did however, allow her retaliation claim against production company Wayfarer and related entities to proceed to trial on May 18.
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The case all dates back to to December 2024, when Lively filed a lawsuit against her It ends with us co-star Justin Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath, Wayfarer Studios, its co-founder Steve Sarowitz, publicist Jennifer Abel, and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, over allegations pertaining to sexual harassment.
Lively had claimed that Baldoni had subjected her to sexual harassment and that he and the other defendants orchestrated a retaliatory smear campaign ‘to destroy’ her reputation. As a consequence, she was seeking around $160million in damages.
Baldoni always strenuously denied the claims and filed his own countersuit for $400million shortly after, alleging defamation and breach of contract but this countersuit was dismissed in June 2025 by Judge Liman.
Following Thursday’s ruling, Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively’s legal team, said in a statement: “This case has always been and will remain focused on the devasting [sic] retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial.”
“For Blake Lively, the greatest measure of justice is that the people and the playbook behind these coordinated digital attacks have been exposed and are already being held accountable by other women they’ve targeted. She looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it becomes easier to detect and fight,” continued the statement.
Although the sexual harassment claims were thrown out by Judge Liman, the statement was keen to address this with context, adding: “Sexual harassment isn’t going forward not because the defendants did nothing wrong but because the court determined Blake Lively was an independent contractor, not an employee.”
Meanwhile, Baldoni’s legal team were celebrating the ruling, as Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach of Shapiro Arato Bach said in a statement: “We’re very pleased the Court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants: Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel.”
“These were very serious allegations, and we are grateful to the Court for its careful review of the facts, law and voluminous evidence that was provided,” the statement concluded. “What’s left is a significantly narrowed case, and we look forward to presenting our defense to the remaining claims in court.”