Justin Baldoni Thinks Judge Dismissing Lawsuit Is ‘Not Fair,’ Says Lawyer

Justin Baldoni‘s lawyer is sharing how the actor took the news that his lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds was dismissed.

“What was Justin’s reaction to it? The same as my reaction to it, which is: It’s not fair. It’s not right,” attorney Bryan Freedman said in an interview on TMZ Live Tuesday, June 10.

“I think that he’s a person who wants to be vindicated, and that’s all that he cares about,” continued Freedman. “He knows who he is. He knows what he’s done. He knows what he hasn’t done. And he wants the truth to come out, and he wants to do that in the appropriate way. … He’s waiting for his day in court, where he can speak out to tell the truth.”

Freedman, who said they “weren’t pleased” with the judge’s June 9 decision to toss the countersuit, added that 41-year-old Baldoni’s legal battle with Lively, 37, is “so far from over, let’s just put it that way.”

While maintaining their point of view that Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims against Baldoni and the Wayfarer Studios parties are “completely wrong,” Freedman claimed Lively is “afraid of the truth.”

“The truth is going to be shown through depositions, which is what is going to be next,” he said, adding that he sent notice to conduct Lively’s deposition sometime in June.

The PEOPLE App is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more!

“We’re gonna proceed forward with the case, and we’re going to show that there was no sexual harassment, and we’re going to show that there was no smear campaign. It’s really just that simple. It’s unfortunate to be wrongfully accused here,” said Freedman.

While on CNN June 9, Lively’s lawyer Mike Gottlieb told host Jake Tapper the actress is “determined to see her claims through and to pursue them to have a full public accountability of what she’s alleged happened to her.”

“I think that today is a message that these kind of retaliatory lawsuits that are really designed to silence and punish people who speak up won’t work,” Gottlieb said during the interview. “They are not going to work. They won’t be tolerated by our justice system and they will not be successful. I think that’s an important message for those who want to speak up against the mistreatment that they may face in their workplaces.”

Earlier on June 9, Judge Lewis J. Liman granted motions to dismiss both the $400 million countersuit against Lively and Reynolds, plus the $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for its coverage of Lively’s complaint in December 2024.

The judge noted, however, that Baldoni’s legal team can still amend the claims for breach of implied covenant and tortious interference with contract, with a deadline of June 23.

In a statement after the news, Lively’s lawyers Gottlieb and Esra Hudson declared it a “total victory and a complete vindication” for the actress. She spoke out in a message on her Instagram Stories that the “abusive” countersuit was now “defeated.” Freedman followed up with a statement saying their “predictable declaration of victory is false.”

Freedman further claimed in his statement that Lively’s allegations are “no truer today than they were yesterday, and with the facts on our side, we march forward with the same confidence that we had when Ms. Lively and her cohorts initiated this battle and look forward to her forthcoming deposition, which I will be taking.”

Gottlieb and Hudson issued a followup statement June 10: “No amount of spin, bluster or creative accounting from Baldoni’s legal team will change the embarrassing reality staring them in the face: The plan to sue Blake Lively and her family into oblivion has been a complete and total failure.”