It’s been a year since Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni over a hostile work environment and smear campaigns.
Controversy occurred on set And ends with us, Where the duo starred together. The actress, who also serves as the film’s director, has filed a counter-suit against the actress for defamation and against her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for interference in the film.
Now that the two parties have not settled their dispute out of court, it seems likely that the lawsuit will go to trial.
Benjamin White, a legal expert, comments on the case and says: the people“It may seem like a long time to fight this, but going from filing a case to trial in a year and a half is actually very fast.”
He continues, “There’s been a tremendous amount of intermediary fighting over things like discovery. There are over 1,000 docket entries for a case that only existed a year ago. That’s an enormous amount of litigation.”
Latest update on Blake and Justin’s case
A new trial date has been set for May 18, 2026, after being postponed for two months. The case is expected to last in court for a month, with jury selection beginning in April.
Jury selection is expected to begin in April, with the trial itself lasting about a month.
Benjamin also explains the complexities of the case, saying, “Reviewing the summary judgment papers feels like reading two completely different books.”
“When stories are this inconsistent, it is very difficult for a judge to favor one side over the other, which makes taking the case to trial the most likely outcome,” he points out.
“You can feel the strength of the writing and some of the legal arguments. But it’s hard to judge how terrible the underlying evidence is when so much of it is redacted.”
The expert adds: “It does not seem to me that this is the kind of case that can be resolved without a trial. In many ways, it can be read as a classic he-said-she-said situation.”
“One side says some things happened, the other says they didn’t happen, or they did happen but are being misunderstood and taken out of context,” he says.
“Whether something happened and what it means is exactly the kind of questions a jury is supposed to resolve,” Benjamin concludes.