Justin Baldoni scores victory as Blake Lively harassment lawsuit is dismissed

Lively filed the civil suit in December 2024 with her long list of grievances. Baldoni filed a counterclaim the following month, but his case was dismissed in October 2025.

The judge had a technical problem with the Gossip girl alum’s sexual harassment claims by ruling that she could not bring them in federal court because she was an independent contractor. He added that her team made a mistake filing the claim in California during filming It ends with us took place on the other side of the country in New Jersey.

Liman ruled that a jury will still hear Lively’s retaliation claims that Baldoni allegedly hired a team of publicists to plant negative stories about her following their doomed collaboration on the film.

After the ruling, Baldoni’s attorneys, Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach, told the court Daily mail: “We are very pleased that the Court has dismissed all sexual harassment claims… These were very serious allegations, and we are grateful to the Court for its careful review of the facts, the law and the extensive evidence provided.”

One of Lively’s attorneys, Sigrid McCawley, told the newspaper, “Sexual harassment does not occur, not because the defendants did nothing wrong, but because the court found that Blake Lively was an independent contractor and not an employee.”