Justin Baldoni Snags Legal Win Over Blake Lively in Pretrial Delay Showdown

Justin Baldoni won a one-week pause in the pretrial fight over his It Ends With Us case against Blake Lively after accusing her lawyers of burying the court in a last-minute document dump. The trial remains set for May 18, with a new motion filed by Baldoni and obtained by Us Weekly turning up the heat.

Justin Baldoni just got a one-week breather in his legal fight with Blake Lively over 'It Ends With Us.' The judge okayed a short pretrial delay after Baldoni said Lively's team buried him in a document dump. The actual trial is still penciled in for May 18, at least for now.

What just changed

• Judge Lewis J. Liman granted Baldoni's request for a one-week extension on pretrial filings, moving the deadline from April 3 to April 10.
• The final pretrial conference also slid a week, from April 21 to April 28.
• A video conference for both sides is now set for April 2 at 5 p.m. ET.
• The May 18 trial date has not been moved based on this ruling.

Why Baldoni asked for time

Baldoni, 42, and his fellow Wayfarer Studios defendants told the court that on Friday, March 20, Lively's lawyers dropped more than 1,000 potential trial exhibits. That is a lot of paper. Their position: even half of that would never make it in front of a jury, and a chunk of it is either irrelevant or would get bounced under the rules anyway. They also flagged Lively's witness list, which names more than 40 people, as wildly overbroad.

On their own prep, Baldoni's attorneys said their draft jury instructions are still a work in progress and already sit at 85 pages, covering the 13 causes of action in play. They also pushed back on locking in a verdict sheet now, calling it premature to predict findings or damages before the trial even starts.

Lively's side pushes back

Lively's team opposed any delay in a March 26 letter, accusing Baldoni and the Wayfarer defendants of trying to slow-walk the case piece by piece. Their take is that Baldoni keeps saying trial prep is too early because he assumes the court will soon hand him a game-changing ruling on pending motions like judgment on the pleadings and summary judgment.

"Defendants have repeatedly taken the position that trial preparations are premature based on their bold assumption that they will receive a case-changing order on the pending motions for judgment on the pleadings and summary judgment."

They also pointed out that a prior request for floating pretrial deadlines was already shot down, and argued Baldoni then slipped into other delay tactics, including missing the exchange deadlines the parties originally agreed to. Lively's lawyers said Baldoni has mischaracterized her pretrial disclosures and insisted she has not tried to hide exhibits, witnesses, or deposition testimony.

They reminded the court that Lively is the plaintiff and has to prove 13 causes of action, and said she is ready to try the case now.

"Ms. Lively is, and always has been, prepared to take her case to trial, and objects to any further attempts by Defendants to delay her ability to do so."

How we got here

This case has been simmering for a while. In December 2024, Lively filed a hostile work environment complaint with California's Civil Rights Department over Baldoni's alleged conduct on the 'It Ends With Us' set. She later sued him in New York for alleged sexual harassment and for allegedly orchestrating a smear campaign against her, seeking more than 160 million dollars in damages. Baldoni has denied all wrongdoing.

He countersued Lively for 400 million dollars, but Judge Liman tossed that countersuit last summer. The court ordered a settlement conference in February, which came and went without a deal. At the time, Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman told Deadline he was open to a resolution but ready for court.

"There is always a chance" of a settlement, he said, while adding he was "looking forward" to trial.

Earlier this month, Lively formally opposed Baldoni's November 2025 bid to get her lawsuit dismissed. Her team leaned on a Second Circuit ruling that says you do not throw out a case just because of how a complaint is worded once evidence has already been gathered. Both sides finished discovery late last year. In a March 12 letter, Lively's lawyers argued that dismissing now would not serve an efficient or fair resolution of anything.

What to watch next

Both sides log on April 2 for that video conference. The new filing deadlines hit April 10, with the final pretrial conference now April 28. The trial date remains May 18 unless the court says otherwise. Also worth noting: Baldoni criticized Lively's 1,000-plus exhibits and 40-plus witnesses as overkill; Lively says she is carrying the burden on 13 claims and is not the one dragging her feet. Translation: expect more procedural skirmishes before anyone picks a jury.

Side note: Baldoni and his wife Emily were spotted outside court back in February 2026, which tells you how public this whole thing has gotten. The numbers are big, the paperwork is bigger, and the runway to May 18 just got a little longer.