Back to the drawing board, Blake Lively!
The Gossip Girl alum has suffered yet another defeat in her ongoing legal battle against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni. This time around, a New York judge has ruled pretty harshly against her…
As you may recall from our reporting on Monday, Justin’s legal team had been seeking access to the 37-year-old actress’ medical records. They were doing so in a bid to prove whether Lively’s “emotional distress” allegations against Justin were legit. But she balked at that so badly she quickly moved to drop that part of her lawsuit against Justin! Hmm… That demand really scared her!
Related: Boom! Now Team Baldoni Is Seeking Sanctions Against Blake Lively!!!
Well, Lively’s attempt to drop a key part of her lawsuit centering on her alleged emotional distress was made without prejudice — meaning she could still pick back up and refile the claim at a later date. But now, according to reporting on Tuesday from DailyMail.com, the judge has completely nixed that plan!
Per that outlet, Judge Lewis Liman denied Lively’s request to drop that portion of the suit without prejudice. Instead, the judge ruled he will not allow her to give Justin the run-around on this now, only to later pop back up and share evidence of her emotional distress in court! He said if Blake is going to drop part of her lawsuit to avoid divulging her medical records, then she may not present in court any evidence of the supposed “emotional distress” she suffered because of Baldoni while working on the movie together. Womp, womp!
Basically, the judge said Blake can’t have her cake and eat it, too, by dropping her emotional distress claims to avoid Justin’s team getting access to her medical records only to then turn around and re-make those claims when this case goes to trial. Either drop it completely or not at all? Huh.
In response to all this drama, Lively’s lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb pointed DM to a statement of theirs on the matter which we’d previously covered yesterday (below):
“Ms. Lively continues to allege emotional distress, as part of numerous other claims in her lawsuit, such as sexual harassment and retaliation, and massive additional compensatory damages on all of her claims.”
But this time around, they also added one new dig at Baldoni and his Wayfarer production company:
“The Baldoni-Wayfarer strategy of filing retaliatory claims has exposed them to expansive new damages claims under California law, rendering certain of Ms. Lively’s original claims no longer necessary.”
Expensive new damages claims?? Well, that’d def be interesting if it comes to fruition…
But honestly, how much more expensive can this case get?! After all, Baldoni is going after Blake for a whopping $400 million (!) in his countersuit, while the legal bills are said to already be piling up.
What do U make of the latest legal maneuvering, Perezcious readers?! Sound OFF with your reactions in the comments (below)!
[Image via Today Show/YouTube/Late Night With Seth Meyers/YouTube]
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