Blake Lively is facing another deposition dispute tied to “It Ends With Us.” Jed Wallace wants to question the actress before a Texas judge decides her request for nearly $800,000 in legal fees. The court dismissed Wallace’s defamation case against Lively for lack of personal jurisdiction. His new filing does not revive that case but challenges how the court should handle Lively’s fee request.
Jed Wallace wants to question Blake Lively before a judge rules on her request for legal fees
Wallace filed new court documents asking a Texas judge to compel Lively to sit for a deposition, TMZ reported. Wallace is a crisis communications specialist who worked with Justin Baldoni’s team during the legal dispute surrounding “It Ends With Us.”
According to the filing, Wallace wants the questioning limited to Lively’s request for attorneys’ fees and damages. 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 contends that the issue of malice could affect whether Lively can recover the money she seeks. He also claims she failed to appear for a scheduled deposition. Lively’s attorneys dispute that characterization.
“Jed Wallace already took Ms. Lively’s deposition. His case was dismissed. Ms. Lively won,” her lawyers told TMZ. They called his latest effort meritless and argued that he is trying to avoid a possible fee award.
The latest filing follows Lively’s earlier win in Wallace’s Texas defamation case. Importantly, the court dismissed that lawsuit because it lacked personal jurisdiction over Lively, meaning the ruling did not address the merits of Wallace’s defamation allegations.
Lively subsequently asked Wallace to pay roughly $800,000 in attorneys’ fees, plus additional fees, costs and damages. Wallace argues that by seeking that money, she opened the door to questioning about matters he believes could undermine her request.
This dispute is separate from Lively’s legal-fee battle with Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios in New York. After a judge ruled that she could recover reasonable fees, Lively requested more than $8 million in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs. Baldoni later challenged the amount she requested.
Lively also previously sat for a deposition in the broader litigation involving Baldoni and Ryan Reynolds. Wallace’s latest request seeks another round of questioning on the narrower issue of her Texas fee request.
The judge has not yet ruled on Wallace’s motion to compel or Lively’s request for fees. For now, the dispute centers on whether Wallace can question her again before the court decides what, if anything, he must pay.
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