In the weeks since Blake Lively filed her initial complaint against Justin Baldoni, the director of It Ends With Us has sued The New York Times as well as the actress and her husband, Lively has countersued back, there are multiple other lawsuits in play, and it's all being discussed online. So, this whole situation is being compared to the notorious Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp case. Now, Depp’s lawyer, Ben Chew, has opened up about Baldoni's legal strategy, calling it “bold,” “aggressive” and not something that is normally done.
Depp’s lawyer Ben Chew was asked about Baldoni’s recent amended complaint and the website the actor’s team created on Law & Crime - Sidebar with Jesse Weber. The host explained that he thought it was a “bold” move to do something like that, and then he asked the lawyer if this was a good idea. In response, Chew said:
I agree, bold, aggressive, hutzpah, whatever the right term is, I think it is very aggressive. Usually, you would not do something like that before a hearing, but I’m sure that they vetted it carefully, vetted the material carefully. Certainly posting a pleading doesn’t seem to me to be out of bounds, these are pleadings made in the public records. Whenever you’re getting into work product or advocacy pieces, then I think it’s getting closer to the line.
Jesse Weber explained that posting all this information not long after it was revealed that Lively and Reynolds were trying to get a gag order for Baldoni’s lawyer was a big decision. Notably, later, a judge explained that if this case was "litigated in the press" more, he'd have to move up the trial date, per The Independent.
To that point about so much information being released publically, Chew said:
But, it’s a novel approach, a bold approach.
Chew went on to say that he’d stay “agnostic” when it came to making claims about who might have the upper hand in this It Ends With Us battle. However, he did explain the value of both teams releasing audio and video – Baldoni’s team has dropped footage from the film as well as a voice message over the last few weeks to try and support his case. To that point, the lawyer explained:
I do think the more they can cite to audio tape and video tape, I think that is particularly persuasive evidence because everybody can see it. And I think it’s much more impactful than just assertions, certainly assertions of council. In the hierarchy, I think text messages, whenever you can hang someone with their own language, and they’re in a position of having to explain they didn’t really mean what they said, you know the cliché, when you’re explaining you’re losing. So, I think on both sides, whenever they have actually used video tape, audio tape or used the actual words of the other side, I think that that’s a good day for them.
Of course, a lot of text messages have been used on both sides of this battle. Lively’s initial complaint featured texts that tried to prove that Baldoni sexually harassed her and conducted a smear campaign against her. Then, the director’s suit against the New York Times as well as his lawsuit against his co-star and her husband Ryan Reynolds use texts to try and show exactly what happened and point to the idea that the actress and her team were cherrypicking information.
Overall, there’s a lot of information and lawsuits coming from both camps, and it’s overwhelming to keep track of it all. Chew’s comments seem to confirm that putting everything out there is a “bold approach.” However, he also noted that using evidence like audio and video files is very effective. Now, it’s time to wait and see how all this plays out in court.
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