Justin Baldoni scores wins in legal battle with Blake Lively and defamation case against former publicist

'It Ends With Us' director, Justin Baldoni, secured another win in his ongoing legal battle with Blake Lively and in a defamation suit against his former publicist, Stephanie Jones. In his battle against Lively, Baldoni and his co-defendants secured a win after a Judge Lewis J Liman granted their request to push back key pretrial deadlines, following claims that the actress's legal team flooded them with a “document dump”, including nearly 1,000 potential exhibits, People reports."It is difficult to imagine that even half that number would be put before the jury," the letter filed in the Southern District of New York states. The letter also requests Judge Liman for a Zoom conference and a one-week extension on deadlines to submit pretrial filings. They also asked for the final pretrial conference to be moved a week.They also said that they needed more time to review the materials and finalise jury instructions and other related defences.In a March 26 filing, Lively’s attorneys pushed back on the request, calling it "an incremental tactic to delay the trial."However, the judge ruled on Baldoni’s request, granting an extension of the deadlines and setting a status conference for April 2.In another major win, the judge ruled that Baldoni can move forward with his defamation lawsuit against his former publicist, Stephanie Jones. The ruling comes after Jones sought to have the case dismissed.

However, the court determined that Wayfarer had presented sufficient grounds for the claims to be examined further. Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement to the Page Six, “The court rejected Stephanie Jones’ effort to dismiss the case and will allow Wayfarer’s claims, including defamation, to be tested on a full evidentiary record.”With this, the communications involving several individuals connected to the legal battle, could be examined. This includes Jones, Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane, and any communication they may have had with Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.According to the 2025 lawsuit, Wayfarer alleges that Jones “maliciously” leaked private text messages, which ultimately contributed to a series of legal actions tied to the film. Baldoni’s team also alleges that Jones shared damaging information with third parties, including Sloane, Lively and Reynolds.