NEED TO KNOW
Blake Lively has been granted a protective order for her deposition in her ongoing legal battle against Justin Baldoni.
On Monday, July 14, Judge Lewis J. Liman granted Lively’s request for a protective order, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE.
Per the ruling, Lively, 37, must make arrangements for Baldoni’s legal team to have a dedicated computer and the ability to print and copy documents in a space chosen by the actress. Also, Baldoni’s team must notify Lively about exactly who will attend the deposition by midday July 15.
The decision follows Lively’s request for a protective order directing defendants to take her upcoming deposition on Thursday, July 17, at a redacted location. They also requested that everyone attending the hearing be identified in advance.
Following the motion, lawyers for Baldoni, 41, addressed Liman in a letter dated July 13, writing that he and his legal team opposed Lively’s motion, arguing that she was using her “celebrity status” to dictate and control the deposition “at a location of her choosing.”
“Lively is a plaintiff who has hurled serious allegations of misconduct against the Wayfarer Parties,” the letter continued. “Like all defendants, the Wayfarer Parties are entitled to depose Lively to develop evidence crucial to their defense. They are also entitled to choose the location of the deposition, which they did.”
Lia Toby/Getty; John Nacion/Variety via Getty
Lively accused her It Ends With Us director-costar Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation, which he has denied. His counterclaims against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, which involve allegations of extortion and defamation, were dismissed by Judge Liman, and his legal team opted not to refile amended versions of those claims.
Their trial is set for March 2026 in New York, and attorneys for both Lively and Baldoni have indicated that they plan to testify during the proceedings.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni, has previously spoken about his plans for deposing Lively as they attempt to refute her allegations.
Asked for his strategy on TMZ Live, Freedman said, “I’m gonna ask her questions under penalty of perjury, and she’s gonna have to provide evidence, and she’s gonna have to provide the truth of the stories. We have all of the video tape, all the footage. We have, you know, the text messages and we have emails. We’re gonna see how consistent her testimony is with the actual facts of what transpired.”
In that same interview, Freedman said Baldoni is “a person who wants to be vindicated, and that’s all that he cares about.” He added that Baldoni “knows who he is. He knows what he’s done. He knows what he hasn’t done. And he wants the truth to come out, and he wants to do that in the appropriate way. … He’s waiting for his day in court, where he can speak out to tell the truth.”
Freedman said in a fiery statement back in May that they should sell tickets to Lively’s deposition for everyone to tune in. “Since Ms. Lively is open to testifying, let’s make it count,” he said at the time. “Hold the deposition at MSG, sell tickets or stream it, and donate every dollar to organizations helping victims of domestic abuse.”
The actress’ reps said July 11 that Lively is “looking forward to her deposition next week, and it should follow the same rules as every other witness in this case.”
“Justin Baldoni’s lawyer has tried to make this matter a public spectacle at every turn, even proposing to sell tickets to a televised deposition at Madison Square Garden,” the statement added. “This is a serious matter of sexual harassment and retaliation and it deserves to be treated as such.”
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After Judge Liman dismissed Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against her, Lively spoke out in a statement, saying, “Like so many others, I’ve felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us.”
She added that she is now “more resolved than ever to continue to stand for every woman’s right to have a voice in protecting themselves, including their safety, their integrity, their dignity and their story.”
