Actors’ lawyers Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively spent their first day in court by pairing for sexual harassment and other charges that broke out about their film, ends with us.
In December, Lively filed a legal appeal against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and starting a campaign for smearing against her. Baldoni denied her claims and, in response, sued for various reasons, including defamation.
The star stars were not needed to participate in a previous meeting at the Manhattan Federal Court on Monday.
However, an hour and a half hearing was still heated as the lawyers claimed each side that the other was flawed by their client outside the court.
The case “should be resolved here in court,” Lively’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb told Jude Lewis Liman. “You shouldn’t get rid of the press.”
Mr. Gottlieb accused Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman of giving “inflammatory out -of -court comments” about Lively’s “character and motives” during the news channels.
In response, Mr. Freedman said that Mr. Gottlieb tried to impose a “inheritance order” that prevents him from talking to the media. Baldoni, he said, was the one who suffered damage to his reputation.
“My client is devastated financially and emotionally,” Mr. Freedman said in court.
Based on the bestseller’s Colleen Hoover novel, he ends up with us a hit of the cash register after being published in August. But despite their financial success, rumors of a bitter quarrel between Baldoni and Lively began to spin before the movie was released at all.
Both sides in legal altercation “made the public to be a holiday,” Judge Liman in court said on Monday.
He said that if the case was completed by a “litigation in the press”, he could be forced to move to the date of the trial in March 2026. As the jurors are not prejudiced with any of the accused.
The judge also said that he would adopt the measure of the New York Bar Association – Rule 3.6 – who forbids lawyers to publicly make statements that could reduce the outcome of the trial.
The hearing on Monday came after Baldoni filed a changed appeal against Lively, which included a “168 -page event” in that case. His team also launched a website with a new appeal, as well as other publicly available videos and text messages surrounding the case.
Lively’s lawyer presented a website in court on Monday. “Who created the website?” Mr. Gottlieb asked. “Who funded that?”
Mr. Gottlieb also dealt with the exit that Baldoni was fired from the romantic scene in it ending with us, which he says proves that Lively’s charges of sexual harassment are unfounded.
But Lively replied, saying that the footage of the couple was shooting the dispute of the dance scene “Damn” and confirms her claims.
Lively’s team on Monday pledged to file a changed appeal, which would include even more people in that case.
Several other parties have already been built into legal drama. Baldoni sues the New York Times for defamation, claiming that his star provided an approach to the complaints for civil rights. The Times was the first story she posted about her suit last December. The New York Times denied these allegations.
Several public relations companies that worked with Baldonia and lively during their film were also charged in that case.
Some of these things will be resolved in a separate trial after Lively and Baldonia, Judge Liman said on Monday.
He also said that the legal teams of Baldonia and Lively would have to agree to a protective order, a legal document that protects people involved in the case of another person accused of abuse or harassing them.
Such an order is needed, Judge Liman said, because of the “significant number of high individuals” in the case of “the nature of the charges”.
During the hearing, Baldoni’s lawyer also pressed the judge to comply with the pre -pre -pre -predicate schedule that both sides suggested, saying that his client wanted the case to progress “as quickly as possible.”
Judge Liman agreed to Baldoni’s lawyer’s request, with several small changes in the schedule.
“The time will come that the jury will talk about this issue,” Judge Liman in court said.