Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively’s court fight just got another twist, and this one could matter as the clock ticks toward trial. Baldoni and his co-defendants scored a procedural win after accusing Lively’s legal team of flooding them with a massive batch of trial materials at the last minute. A judge agreed to give them more time, extending key pretrial deadlines and setting a new status conference for April 2.
The latest fight is less about star power and more about paper, lots of it. Baldoni’s side says Lively’s team handed over a mountain of disclosures too close to major deadlines, making it harder to prepare for what is shaping up to be one of Hollywood’s messiest courtroom showdowns this year. With a May 18 trial date hanging over both camps, tensions are clearly heating up.
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively Pretrial Fight Gets Ugly
On March 25, lawyers for Baldoni, 42, and the other Wayfarer defendants asked Judge Lewis J. Liman in the Southern District of New York for a Zoom conference and a one-week extension on several looming pretrial deadlines. They also wanted the final pretrial conference pushed back by a week.
Their argument was blunt. Lively’s team, they said, handed over trial disclosures so large and so broad that reviewing them under the current schedule was not realistic. The defense pointed to a list of nearly 1,000 possible exhibits, plus more than 40 potential witnesses, and said the volume alone raised serious concerns.
“It’s hard to fathom that even half of these would be presented to the jury,” the defense wrote in its filing.
Baldoni’s lawyers also argued that they were being forced to sort through material they believe would never make it into trial anyway. At the same time, they are still trying to finalize jury instructions that reportedly run about 85 pages and cover 13 claims and related defenses. They also said it made little sense to lock in a verdict sheet while key motions, including Baldoni’s motion to dismiss, are still unresolved.
Lively’s Team Pushes Back
Lively’s side was not having it. In a March 26 response, her attorneys rejected the whole ‘document dump’ label and framed Baldoni’s request as yet another attempt to slow things down before trial. They argued that the defense had enough time and that its own delays should not be rewarded now.
They also pushed back on the idea that the disclosures were somehow too broad, saying Baldoni’s team had no real reason it could not handle the review process the same way Lively’s side had.
Still, the judge sided with Baldoni on this issue, at least for now. He granted the deadline extension and scheduled an April 2 status conference, giving the defense breathing room as both sides prepare for the next phase.
This legal battle has been building for months. Lively, 38, sued her ‘It Ends With Us’ director and co-star in December 2024, accusing Baldoni and others of sexual harassment and retaliation. Baldoni has denied the claims. Lively is seeking more than $160 million in damages.
Baldoni later fired back with a $400 million countersuit, accusing Lively of extortion and defamation. That case was dismissed, which only added more attention to the original lawsuit. The two also sat through a six-hour settlement conference in February with Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave, but nothing was resolved.
Now, all eyes are on what happens next. If this case does go to trial on May 18, both Lively and Baldoni are expected to testify. And given how hard both sides are already fighting over the paperwork, the courtroom drama may be only getting started.
