What felt like the never-ending lawsuit has finally come to an end as a judge has officially tossed out Justin Baldoni‘s legal stoush with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
The It Ends With Us director’s whopping $400 million defamation countersuit against the celeb couple has officially been shut down after Baldoni, 41, failed to file an amended complaint, per court docs obtained by The Post.
Judge Lewis J. Liman signed off on the order on Friday, confirming that Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios team missed their deadline after the case was originally tossed back in June.
Judge Lewis J. Liman revealed he’d warned the parties on October 17 that he was considering wrapping up the case for good — and the only one to respond was Blake Lively.
The 38-year-old asked the judge to officially close the case but keep her request for legal fees active, which he agreed to.
Baldoni still has the option to appeal the ruling, though.
The whole messy legal saga kicked off last December when Lively accused the It Ends With Us director of sexually harassing her on set and orchestrating a “coordinated effort to destroy her reputation” after the movie came out.
Baldoni denied the claims and fired back with a $400 million countersuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, 49, and their publicist Leslie Sloane, accusing them of defamation and extortion — allegations they also denied.
In June, Judge Liman tossed both Baldoni’s $400 million suit and his separate $250 million case against The New York Times, where he claimed the outlet’s article about Lively’s complaint amounted to libel and invasion of privacy.
After the case was dismissed, Lively’s lawyers called the legal win “complete vindication” for the star.
“As we have said from day one, this ‘$400 million’ lawsuit was a sham, and the Court saw right through it,” they said in a statement in June, adding that they “look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys’ fees, treble damages and punitive damages” against Baldoni and others “who perpetrated this abusive litigation.”
Lively also spoke out about the lawsuit in a message on her Instagram Stories following the news.
“Like so many others, I’ve felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us,” she wrote. “While the suit against me was defeated, so many don’t have the resources to fight back.”
Meanwhile, Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, took umbrage with Lively and her team for their “predictable declaration of victory”, which he stated was “false”.
Freedman continued, “This case is about false accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign, which Ms. Lively’s own team conveniently describes as ‘untraceable’ because they cannot prove what never happened.”
While the countersuit has been dropped, Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni is set to go to trial in March so it’s not quiiiiite over just yet.
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