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On Monday, Blake Lively's lawyers appeared before a federal judge in New York to seek legal fees and damages from actor and director Justin Baldoni.
Her team says this is a test case for a rarely used California law that aims to stop defamation lawsuits from being used against people who report sexual harassment.
This motion is Lively's last chance to receive money in the dispute. The settlement the two sides reached last month ended the main case without any payment to Lively, but it left open the question of whether she should get compensation under the California law. Both sides have agreed not to appeal whatever decision Judge Lewis Liman makes.
A law barely tested in California
The 2023 California law at the center of this case was passed six years after the #MeToo movement led to many sexual misconduct complaints.
Around that time, more people began filing defamation lawsuits against those who made harassment claims public.
Supporters of the law said that even the threat of these lawsuits could keep victims from speaking out.
Lively's lawyers argue that the defamation countersuit from Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, which Judge Liman dismissed last year, was a baseless and retaliatory action under the law.
They are asking for legal fees, triple damages, and punitive damages, which is the maximum allowed by the statute.
Baldoni's lawyers say the motion is just a routine step and is unlikely to succeed. They also argue that Lively's actions hurt her claim of acting in good faith.
Different views on the settlement
After the settlement, both sides said they had won in some way. Baldoni's lawyers pointed out that no money was paid. Lively's team said the compensation question remained open because the California motion was pending.
"Ms. Lively hopes that her case, and the application of this important statute, will deter others from abusing the legal system and filing frivolous retaliatory defamation suits against people who speak out against sexual harassment and retaliation," said Esra Hudson, an attorney for Lively.
Background of the dispute
Lively first filed her complaint in December 2024, saying that Baldoni, who was both her co-star and the director of "It Ends with Us," made inappropriate comments on set and tried to hurt her reputation before her harassment complaints became public. Baldoni responded by suing her for extortion and defamation, but those claims were dismissed.
Judge Liman also dismissed Lively's sexual harassment claims for technical reasons before the settlement, which made the case much smaller. It was still unclear at the time of the settlement whether Baldoni's crisis communications team had retaliated by influencing online discussions.
The main issue in the current motion is whether Lively made her harassment complaints in good faith, as the California law requires. Her lawyers have pointed to a 2024 text message from Baldoni to someone on his crisis communications team as proof of her good intentions. Baldoni's team says that some of her claims were made up or exaggerated.
"It Ends with Us," based on Colleen Hoover's novel, made over $350 million at the box office in 2024.
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