Blake Lively’s legal rep is not backing down.
Justin Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman has said his piece on the recent dismissal of their case against the Simple Favor star, and now Blake’s is saying his! On Wednesday, Michael Gottlieb spoke with TMZ about Judge Lewis Liman’s decision to dismiss Justin’s case after ruling Blake’s sexual harassment allegations are legally protected and therefore immune from a retaliatory lawsuit:
“My client feels vindicated. This decision, this week validated what she has been saying since the day these retaliatory lawsuits were filed against her. We’ve said from the start that these were meritless, sham claims that were designed to distract from Ms. Lively’s claims of sexual harassment retaliation that she faced.”
He continued:
“I think it’s important to recognize what it means to lose your case at the motion to dismiss stage. When Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties filed this lawsuit, their lawyer went all over in the press saying that it was based on undeniable facts and documentary evidence that crushed Ms. Lively’s false allegations, and the court essentially said, ‘I’m going to accept everything you said in your hundreds of pages of pleadings as true. But even accepting all of that as true for the purposes of resolving this motion, nothing you have said constitutes a legally viable claim.’ It’s all meritless despite all the bluster, despite all the hundreds of pages of filings — all of the claims, all of these so-called receipts add up to nothing but noise. It has all been dismissed from the case.”
Damn! Those are fighting words! But Justin’s team seem more than ready to fight…
Related: Blake Lively Gets Interesting Support From Julia Fox
During his interview with TMZ on Tuesday, Freedman made it clear he wants a deposition in June and for Blake to move forward with her case… Which she’s more than happy to “oblige” to. Gottlieb added:
“We are happy to oblige him with going forward with our case. The notion that we wouldn’t go forward with this case is preposterous as much as what the Wayfarer parties’ lawyer said the other day. Of course Ms. Lively is going to go forward with her claims. One of the things she said when this decision came out is that she is more determined than ever to take this case to trial to prove her claims of sexual harassment and retaliation not just for herself, but for all of the women out there who may suffer from sexual harassment in the workplace who may not have the resources, who may not have the wherewithal to be able to defend themselves and may [not] be able to speak up for themselves.”
The legal eagle continued:
“It’s really important to remember what the Wayfarer parties have tried to do in this case: they haven’t just attacked Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, they’ve attacked the laws that are designed to protect victims of sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment. They have attempted to strike down as unconstitutional a landmark law in California that is designed to protect victims of sexual harassment who speak up. They, Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties, have asked a court to strike that law down as unconstitutional. Blake Lively is not going to allow that to happen. She’s going to stand up for that law, she’s going to stand up for victims of sexual harassment who choose to speak up, she’s going to take this case to trial and obtain accountability and justice for what has happened to her.”
Gear up for war, then!
As for the deposition, Gottlieb said Blake will happily sit for it later this month:
“Of course she will sit for a deposition, she’s a plaintiff in the case. So she’s going to deposed, Justin Baldoni is going to be deposed.”
As for how he pictures this all ending, the lawyer concluded:
“It ends in trial. It ends with a trial in open court on the record with live testimony under oath and we are confident that when that is done, we will prevail on the claims that Ms. Lively has raised.”
You can watch his full interview (below):
Well, it’s pretty clear Blake’s camp doesn’t seem shaken by Justin’s… We’ll just have to wait and see where this goes.
What are YOUR thoughts here, Perezcious readers?? Sound OFF in the comments down below!
[Images via Variety/YouTube & Phil Lewis/WENN]
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