Justin Baldoni’s Lawyer Slams ‘Privileged’ Blake Lively Amid Legal War

Justin Baldoni‘s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has slammed Blake Lively after she filed to dismiss the actor’s $400 million defamation lawsuit.

Freedman claims the actress is attempting to control the authorized system as a “privileged elite” however vowed to proceed to carry her “accountable for her actions of pure malice.”

Choose Lewis Liman has already positioned a modified protecting order on Blake Full of life and her husband Ryan Reynolds‘ conversations with “high-profile” people after they requested it, expressing fears that Justin Baldoni may leak them to the press.

Baldoni’s lawyer not too long ago slammed Full of life after she filed to have the $400 million countersuit in opposition to her, her husband Reynolds, and their publicist, Leslie Sloane, thrown out of court docket.

“Full of life’s current movement to dismiss herself from the self-concocted catastrophe she initiated is without doubt one of the most abhorrent examples of abusing our authorized system,” Freedman mentioned in a press release shared with the Daily Mail. “Stringent guidelines are put into place to guard the harmless and permit people to rightfully defend themselves.”

He went additional to notice that “legal guidelines usually are not meant to be twisted and curated by privileged elites to suit their very own private agenda,” as he vowed to “proceed to carry Ms. Full of life accountable for her actions of pure malice, which embody falsely accusing my shoppers of harassment and retaliation.”

Freedman added that the “Gossip Woman” star’s “fantastical claims will probably be swiftly debunked as discovery strikes ahead, simply disproved with precise, evidentiary proof.”

In line with the information outlet, Full of life’s attorneys filed for all circumstances in opposition to the actress to be dropped, tagging Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit as “vengeful and rambling” whereas claiming that the “It Ends With Us” director’s movement is a “profound abuse of the authorized course of that has no place in federal court docket.”

Courtroom paperwork additionally confirmed that their steady authorized actions in opposition to Full of life could find yourself costing Baldoni’s staff $100 million on account of a authorized provision in California Civil Code Part 47.1, which supplies protections to people who’ve spoken out about sexual harassment or filed authorized claims.

“The legislation prohibits weaponizing defamation lawsuits, like this one, to retaliate in opposition to people who’ve filed authorized claims or have publicly spoken out about sexual harassment and retaliation,” the paperwork learn.

“The best to hunt authorized redress and the suitable of the press to report on it are sacred rules which are protected by a number of privileges, together with the litigation and truthful report privileges, that are absolute,” it continued.

“Furthermore, by selecting to deliver their claims below California legislation, the Wayfarer Events have voluntarily subjected their total lawsuit to the sexual harassment privilege within the not too long ago enacted California Civil Code Part 47.1 (‘Part 47.1’), which bars retaliatory lawsuits based mostly on public disclosures of sexual harassment and associated allegations, together with disclosures to the press,” the doc additional said.

Full of life’s attorneys, led by Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, have given causes behind her movement to dismiss Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit.

Having claimed that the lawsuit is a “profound abuse of the authorized course of that has no place in federal court docket,” they went additional to notice that California legal guidelines “expressly prohibits suing victims” who’ve spoken up in opposition to sexual harassment or retaliation.

They mentioned, “This meritless and retaliatory lawsuit runs head first into three authorized obstacles, together with the litigation, truthful report, and sexual harassment privileges, the latter of which incorporates a compulsory fee-shifting provision that can require the likes of billionaire Steve Sarowitz, Wayfarer Studios, and others that introduced frivolous defamation claims in opposition to Ms. Full of life to pay damages.”

The attorneys added, “In different phrases, in an epic self-own, the Wayfarer Events’ try to sue Ms. Full of life ‘into oblivion’ has solely created extra legal responsibility for them, and deservedly so, given what they’ve executed.”

Full of life’s movement to dismiss comes after her husband, Ryan Reynolds, filed to have Baldoni’s swimsuit in opposition to him dismissed, claiming the actor can’t sue him over “damage emotions.”

Baldoni’s lawsuit accused Reynolds of mocking and bullying him through the use of the character of “Nicepool” in “Deadpool & Wolverine” to satirize Baldoni’s “feminist” picture.

He additionally accused Reynolds of calling him a “sexual predator” whereas additionally claiming that he berated him for allegedly “fats shaming” Full of life.

In a movement to dismiss the claims, Reynolds’s lawyer did not dispute that the Nicepool character relies on Baldoni however mentioned that he had proven “thin-skinned outrage” by complaining about it, per Variety.

Reynolds’s attorneys famous of their court docket submitting that the actor’s labeling of Baldoni as a “sexual predator” is protected by the Structure.

The “allegations recommend that Mr. Reynolds genuinely, maybe passionately, believes that Mr. Baldoni’s conduct is reflective of a ‘predator,'” the movement said. “(T)he legislation establishes that calling somebody a ‘predator’ quantities to constitutionally protected opinion… Whereas Mr. Baldoni ‘could not recognize being known as a ‘predator,’ these damage emotions don’t give rise to authorized claims.”

“Mr. Reynolds has a First Modification proper to carry Mr. Baldoni — or any man who Mr. Reynolds believes sexually harassed his spouse — in ‘deep disdain,'” the court docket doc learn.