Highlights
- Jed Wallace wants Blake Lively to sit for another deposition over her request for nearly £800,000 in legal fees.
- Wallace’s defamation case against Lively was dismissed because the Texas court lacked personal jurisdiction over her.
- Lively is also involved in a separate legal-fee dispute with Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios in New York.
Blake Lively is facing another legal challenge after Jed Wallace asked a Texas judge to compel the actress to sit for another deposition before a decision is made on her request for nearly £800,000 in legal fees.
Wallace, a crisis communications specialist who worked with Justin Baldoni’s team during the legal dispute surrounding It Ends With Us, filed new court documents seeking to question Lively about her request for attorneys’ fees and damages.
The filing does not revive Wallace’s dismissed defamation case. Instead, it challenges whether he should be allowed to question Lively before the court decides whether he must pay her legal costs.
Wallace wants to question Lively again
According to the filing, Wallace wants the deposition to focus on Lively’s request for legal fees and related issues. He argues that he should be allowed to examine what she knew and believed when she made statements involving him and his company, Street Relations Inc.
Wallace also argues that the issue of malice could affect whether Lively is entitled to recover the money she is seeking. He claims she failed to appear for a scheduled deposition, although Lively’s lawyers dispute that account.
Lively’s attorneys told TMZ that Wallace had already taken her deposition and that his case was dismissed. They described the latest effort as meritless and argued that Wallace is attempting to avoid a possible fee award.
Why Lively is seeking £800,000
Wallace’s defamation lawsuit against Lively was previously dismissed because the Texas court found it lacked personal jurisdiction over her. The ruling did not address the merits of Wallace’s defamation allegations.
Lively subsequently asked Wallace to pay roughly £800,000 in attorneys’ fees, along with additional fees, costs and damages.
Wallace argues that by seeking the money, Lively has opened the door to further questioning about matters he believes could undermine her request.
The judge has not yet ruled on Wallace’s motion to compel or Lively’s request for fees.
Separate from the Baldoni legal-fee battle
The Texas dispute is separate from Lively’s ongoing legal-fee battle with Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios in New York.
After a judge ruled that Lively could recover reasonable fees, she requested more than £6 million in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs. Baldoni later challenged the amount.
Lively has also previously sat for a deposition in the wider litigation involving Baldoni and Ryan Reynolds.
Wallace’s latest request is limited to Lively’s Texas fee claim. The court must now decide whether she can be questioned again before determining what, if anything, Wallace should pay.
