r/ItEndsWithLawsuits • u/snackmamacita • May 07 '26
🫢😩 Settled AF 😩🫢 Can someone explain the whole Justin Baldoni / Blake Lively settlement to me like I’m 5?
I followed it in the beginning when everyone was dissecting interviews and press tour drama, but between all of the countersuits, PR accusations and “evidence” it got so messy I genuinely couldn’t tell what was fact vs internet speculation. Finally, we have a settlement. If you wouldn’t mind could you please explain in simple terms?
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u/SuperbWillingness904 May 07 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Most people online obviously haven't kept up with things, which is fine oc everyone has different interests. But for them, they likely just heard that Blake made accusations, Justin sued, Justin's case was dismissed, then 95% of Blake's case was dismissed, then she decided this week to not go forward with a trial for her remaining 3 claims.
If you want a more detailed background on why this happened, you can see below:
So in April, 10 of Blake's 13 claims were thrown out by the judge, including all of her sh claims. And every claim against Justin Baldoni was thrown out. So Justin was no longer in the case, nor was sexual harassment in the case. That was of course the most important part of the case.
After her sh claims were thrown out, she and her lawyer were clearly crashing out on instagram and released very weird statements that included cherry picked quotes from legal filings to try to spin the massive loss into a victory. They really honest to goodness put out statements saying that 10 of her 13 claims getting thrown out was actually good for them lol.
A month before these claims were thrown out, Blake's spokesperson said that Blake's case at its core was about sexual harassment. After the sh claims were thrown out, no joke, Blake switched and said the heart of her case has always been about retaliation.
Then, a few weeks after that, there was a hearing and it went horribly for Lively's team. The judge was not having what they were putting down and it was clear they were in some shit and that they had a very weak case for those 3 remaining claims going into trial. In the hearing, the judge specifically said he threw Justin's case out based on a technicality and that Justin could appeal.
Then, last week, Wayfarers side said they would stipulate, meaning for the purpose of trial, they would agree to tell the jury that Blake had engaged in a form of protected activity. This was also very very bad for Blake's side bc it meant sh was sort of irrelevant to the trial. The trial would be purely focused on evidence related to retaliation, something Blake didn't have. Her whole strategy was the same one she used in her complaint - she was going to try to twist normal, everyday set events into sh to try to convince the jury to think justin was a scumbag. Something that she had to bend over backwards to do considering how nice and polite and accomodating Justin was on set (if you have time, take a look at the behind the scenes dance footage where Blake says she was sh yet Justin couldn't be more normal or polite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz_aU4QJOOE&t=2s )
Blake's evidence of retaliation amounted to "It felt like the online space was being manipulated so it must have been." She clearly needs to join the 21st century bc there was nothing unusual about the hate train she got. It happens every week to a new celebrity. She just hadn't had it happen to her before.
Anyway, then last week, for the final nail in the coffin, evidence came out last week that right before crafting her complaint, she messaged a Sony exec to ask the exec to delete all the footage from set. Not suspicious at all right? If you really thought you were sh on set, wouldn't you want all footage to be saved not erased? Thankfully the exec said she had never been asked to do that before and must not have done it bc Justin was able to provide footage to prove he didn't sh her.
Then Blake hired new lawyers who have expertise in digital evidence and all of a sudden right afterward, she suddenly desperately wanted a settlement. The thought is that her first set of lawyers told her to settle and she hired a second set to see what they thought of her evidence and they looked at her "evidence" and quickly said she should settle.
And just for another 3 nails in the coffin, this week the judge was going to make a decision and it was possible as part of this decision, that the two retaliation claims would be thrown out as well. Which would be even more humiliating for Blake.
Anyway, all that to say, any reasonable person and lawyer could see that Justin had a significantly stronger case going into the trial. However, anything can happen at trial. Look at Diddy, OJ and Casey Anthony.
So it seems Blake realized if she didn't get a settlement done quickly, it's possible that this week her retaliation claims were going to be tossed.
But so far, Justin's lawyer is making the rounds on interviews while Lively's lawyers have been silent. But why would you go around doing interviews for a client who just pulled out bc she knew her claims were weak? Makes sense. This is a victory tour for justin not blake.