Blake Lively gets a massive win in her case against Justin Baldoni
The case between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continues with Lively getting something of a win against her It Ends With Us co-star and director.
Lively was arguing against the public inclusion in certain documents, including texts from other celebrities. The information that Lively’s attorneys argued for included trade secrets, upcoming projects, marketing strategies, and more that would be bad if revealed to the public too soon. The judge, Judge Lewis Liman, agreed with Lively’s attorneys and granted her request to limit the information to “attorneys eyes only.”
“These cases involve both business competitors and allegations of sexual harm,” the judge wrote. “Discovery will necessarily include confidential and sensitive business and personal information. The risk of disclosure is great.” Liman also argued that if the information was not leaked to the press, it could encourage “gossip and innuendo to those in the tight artistic community in a position to do harm to one or the other.”
Lively’s requests were not all met as some were labeled as “too broad” by Liman. “The Moving Parties have shown good cause for a limited AEO provision and have shown that entering such a provision now is critical to the just and speedy (if not necessarily ‘inexpensive’) determination of the case,” he wrote.
It does seem like a win from Lively’s side of things. Her team released a statement on the ruling, saying “Today, the Court rejected the Wayfarer Parties’ objections and entered the protections needed to ensure the free flow of discovery material without any risk of witness intimidation or harm to any individual’s security. With this order in place, Ms. Lively will move forward in the discovery process to obtain even more of the evidence that will prove her claims in Court.”
This is the right move
At this time, Baldoni has been continually posting texts exchanges as well as voice memos he shared with Lively. Those private exchanges have been Baldoni’s way of painting himself as the innocent party. Despite what anyone in the public thinks, he did willingly admit to sending a strange voice memo at 2 in the morning.
What this ruling does is limit who has information from leaking it to the public. So while she did not get everything she asked for, Lively’s team winning this portion is at least a step in the right direction with this case. Whether that limits Baldoni from posting information on his own website is unknown.
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