Johnny Depp's lawyer's REAL thoughts on Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively's lawsuit
The It Ends With Us co-stars now have a trial date of March 2026
Johnny Depp's attorney Benjamin Chew weighed in on the legal case between Blake Lively and her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni.
In an interview on Law&Crime Sidebar with Jesse Weber, the lawyer, who represented the Pirates of the Caribbean star in his defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard commented on the tactics used by Justin and his team.
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Commenting on their launch of a new website titled "Lawsuit Info", including his amended complaint and a "timeline of relevant events" from 2019 to 2025, he said: "I think it very aggressive".
"Usually you would not do something like that before a hearing, but I'm sure that they vetted it carefully, vetted the material carefully," he continued.
"Certainly posting a pleading doesn't seem to me to be out of bounds. These are pleadings made in the public record."
The attorney also labelled Baldoni's newest attempt to avoid serious allegations as "bold", and when asked which side he believed had the upper hand, he stayed neutral.
The trial date has now been set for March 2026, with the judge also confirming that the lawsuits each party filed against one another will be combined.
Blake first filed a complaint against the Jane The Virgin star in late December, citing "severe emotional distress," and alleging "sinister retaliatory tactics" in an effort to smear her name.
She also accused Justin of sexual harassment, as well as his production company Wayfarer Studios and others of engaging in a "carefully crafted, coordinated and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out".
Her complaint, filed with the California Civil Rights Department and a precursor to a lawsuit, also included the promotional period, alleging that a crisis PR team was hired to intentionally slander her name and reputation.
The trial date for Blake and Justin has now been set for March 2026
Justin then countersued last month, accusing Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds of defamation and extortion, seeking at least $400 million in damages.
After a back and forth, a New York federal judge set the trial date of March 2026 at the end of January, combining the lawsuits each party filed against one another.
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During a pre-trial conference on 3 February to address Blake's request for a gag order for Justin and his lawyer Bryan Freedman, the latter revealed that his clients have been "devastated financially and emotionally".
According to People, he also shared during the conference: "Not to sound like a four-year-old fighting a four-year-old with 'they started it,' but in these kinds of cases, once someone says something it becomes fact: there's no way to fight against it."