Judge Rules Blake Lively Can Choose Deposition Location In Justin Baldoni Legal Battle
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman granted Lively's motion for a protective order, writing that 'Lively will make arrangements for opposing counsel to have a dedicated computer and the ability to print and copy documents in the space chosen by Lively.'
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Read the judge's Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni protective order.
Lively's legal team claimed that Baldoni's team had been seeking to turn the deposition into 'a media event.'
'Defendants have not denied that their intent is to manufacture a harassing publicity stunt by requiring Ms. Lively to parade through paparazzi, or by inviting unknown attendees to the deposition, including members of the media or social media influencers, or any other number of abusive tactics,' her attorneys wrote to the judge last week.
The judge's order also requires the defendants to disclose all of the individuals who will appear at the deposition.
Baldoni's lawyers opposed the protective order, arguing that she 'does not present a single fact to support her allegations of a 'plot' to use the deposition as a 'publicity stunt.''
'Without a whit of evidence, Lively contends that if the location is not changed, she will beassaulted by hordes of paparazzi and the [defendants] may invite the press or hostile thirdparties to the deposition,' the attorneys wrote to the judge. 'This is not only fiction, it is nonsense.' They noted that their location for the deposition, at the law firm of Meiser, Seelig & Fein, is a class A commercial building with a non-public entrance.
Lively sued Baldoni last year, alleging retaliation, among other claims, after she accused him of sexual harassment on the set of the movie It Ends With Us. Baldoni filed a counter suit against her for defamation and extortion, with The New York Times also named as a defendant. The judge dismissed that claim last month.
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