Judge in Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni War Grants Protective Order
Justin Baldoni v. Blake Lively New Evidence Rules for Both Sides!!! Judge Issues Protective Order
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Blake Lively is getting the protective order she wants in her war with Justin Baldoni -- but Justin's team is also celebrating the fact that ultimately, there will be very few secrets kept from the public in this case.
According to docs, the judge in Justin's lawsuit against Blake and Ryan Reynolds is issuing an order allowing Blake and Justin's legal teams to designate sensitive material as suitable for "attorneys' eyes only" -- meaning they can choose to keep certain details out of the public eye.
On the surface, this is a big win for Team Lively. As we reported, she and her attorneys wanted the protective order as a means to block Justin's side from continuing to release a slew of emails, texts, videos and other material related to their war over "It Ends With Us."
Justin and his attorney Bryan Freedman have said they want to reveal as much evidence as possible to defend his reputation from the accusations Blake's made against him, which include sexual harassment.
There is a silver lining for Team Baldoni. The judge's order includes a provision informing both sides ... "the Court is unlikely to seal or otherwise afford confidential treatment" for any documents exchanged between Blake and Justin that end up as evidence in the trial.
Translation: All the juicy stuff will come out in the end ... that's assuming this goes to trial and doesn't settle out of court.
Bryan Freedman tells TMZ ... "We are fully in agreement with the Court’s decision to provide a narrow scope of protections to categories such as private mental health records and personal security measures that have never been of interest to us as opposed to Ms. Lively's exceedingly over broad demand for documents for a 2.5 year period of time which the court rightly quashed."
He adds, "We remain focused on the necessary communications that will directly contradict Ms. Lively's unfounded accusations. We will oppose any efforts by Ms. Lively and her team to hamper our clients’ ability to defend against her attacks by incorrectly categorizing important information as 'trade secrets,' especially considering there were no issues in providing these communications willingly to the New York Times."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Blake says, "Today, the Court rejected the Wayfarer Parties' objections and entered the protections needed to ensure the free flow of discovery material without any risk of witness intimidation or harm to any individual’s security. With this order in place, Ms. Lively will move forward in the discovery process to obtain even more of the evidence that will prove her claims in Court."
