A New York judge has threatened to move up Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s March 2026 trial date if their lawyers continue their war of words in the press.
On Monday (February 3), Lively’s attorney, Michael Gottlieb, and Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, faced off in court for the first official hearing.
Both Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 41, were absent from the nearly two-hour pretrial meeting. However, that didn’t keep their legal representatives from accusing one another of verbally attacking each other’s clients in the media.
The case “is supposed to be resolved here in court,” Gottlieb told Judge Lewis Liman, per the BBC. “It's not supposed to be resolved in the press.”
He additionally accused Freedman of making “inflammatory extrajudicial comments” about Lively’s “character and motives” in TV interviews.
Freedman hit back, claiming that Gottlieb was trying to impose a “gag order” so that he would no longer be able to talk to the press.
"My client is devastated financially and emotionally,” Freedman claimed.
Judge Liman proceeded to step in, saying that both sides have “given the public plenty to feast upon.”
He added that if the case continued to be "litigated in the press," he would have no choice but to move up the trial date to prevent a jury from becoming prejudiced against one side.
He said he would adopt the New York Bar Association Rule 3.6, a measure that bars lawyers from making statements publicly that could “have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter,” according to the American Bar Association.
In December, Lively sued her It Ends with Us co-star and director for sexual harassment and causing her “severe emotional distress.” Baldoni, who has denied the accusations, filed a $400 million counter-suit against the Gossip Girl star and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for allegedly attempting to “destroy” his reputation and career.
The Monday hearing took place after Baldoni filed an updated complaint against Lively consisting of additional claims, including that Reynolds “bullied” him in his latest superhero film, Deadpool & Wolverine.
Baldoni’s legal team also recently launched a website containing documents and text messages linked to his legal dispute.
Gottlieb took issue with the website, questioning Freedman about who created and funded it. He also promised that they, too, would be filing an amended complaint that would add further allegations.
The judge told both parties that due to the “significant number of high-profile individuals” in the case and the “nature of the allegations,” they would need to agree to a protective order.
A protective order limits the “behavior of someone who harms or threatens to harm another person,” according to the New York State’s Office for the Protection of Domestic Violence.
