Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's Trial Scheduled for March 2026: New Details in theIt Ends With UsCase

Mar. 15, 2025

Blake Lively; Justin Baldoni.Photo:Katie Jones/Beauty Inc via Getty; Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty

Katie Jones/Beauty Inc via Getty; Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty

A timeline forBlake LivelyandJustin Baldoni’s court battle is taking shape.

Both cases inLively v. Wayfarer Studios et al.are now scheduled for trial on March 9, 2026, Judge Lewis J. Liman outlined in an order filed Monday, Jan. 27.

Additionally, a previously set pre-trial hearing — to hash outLively’s prospective request for a gag order— was set for Feb. 12 but will now happen Feb. 3.

In turn,Baldoni, 41, has countersued Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Sloane, accusing them of defamation and extortion.

Blake Lively; Justin Baldoni.Gotham/WireImage (2)

Gotham/WireImage (2)

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Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has called the claims made in Lively’s complaint “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”

About Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit, her lawyers called it “meritless” and “desperate.” They added, in part, “The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in “It Ends With Us”.Nicole Rivelli/Sony Pictures Entertainment

Nicole Rivelli/Sony Pictures Entertainment

Legal expert Gregory Doll, a lawyer and partner at Doll Amir & Eley in Los Angeles who is not representing either party, recently told PEOPLE heexpects a settlement to happenbefore Lively and Baldoni get to trial.

“Ninety-two percent of all civil cases settle, so odds are overwhelmingly that the case will settle,” says Doll, noting thatJohnny Depp and Amber Heard’s 2022 defamation trialwas the “rare exception.”

Still, the legal battle will likely grow in intensity before any settlement is reached,Doll adds: “It’s very nasty, and I think it’s going to get nastier. … It’s going to be a very consuming, very difficult, very challenging time for the parties going ahead. I think they both got great lawyers, but they’re going to pay a lot of money and it’s going to be a lot of emotional turmoil."

source: people.com