The brilliance of Baldoni's defamation lawsuit. Worth every single penny of 47.1 fees.
Justin Baldoni filed his defamation suit for one purpose: as a vehicle to release his traunch of evidence, lawsuitinfo.com, and his own narrative.
Everyone believed Lively when she filed her CRD complaint and the NYT published its exposé. Everyone believed her when she filed her lawsuit. The public and many celebrities rushed to her defense while condemning Baldoni.
He had to act quickly. That's why his defamation pleading was rushed, poorly-constructed, and ultimately dismissed. That's also why his team never amended the claims or sought appeal. The suit had already served its purpose.
It immediately reversed public sentiment by handing the public 150+ pages of texts, emails, and a dance scene video, and completely changed the entire litigation landscape.
The goal was to do this as quickly as possible before people's support of Lively was irreversible. And that's exactly what happened. If he had waited for discovery to conclude (the next opportunity for the public to see his evidence and counter narrative), there was a risk people's opinions would have been solidified.
The suit accomplished everything it was drafted to accomplish, save for avoiding 47.1 fees. It changed public discourse, reversed public sentiment, rallied people around Baldoni, exposed the many falsehoods in Lively's lawsuit (forcing her to amend her complaint twice!), exposed Lively as a false accuser, and put her on her heels for the rest of the litigation until she settled without receiving a penny of her $300M in damages.
The defamation suit was worth every penny of whatever Liman will award Lively, which won't be $8M.