Taylor Swift won't be deposed, judge rules
A judge has ruled Taylor Swift will not have to sit for a deposition in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's ongoing legal case.
Taylor Swift will not be deposed by Justin Baldoni's legal team.
The It Ends With Us filmmaker had called on the Karma hitmaker to sit for a legal meeting with the Karma singer as part of his ongoing legal battle with Blake Lively - who is suing him and his production company Wayferer Studios for sexual harassment and retaliation - but now the federal judge overseeing the case has declined a request to extend a deadline so that Taylor can sit for a deposition after the release of her The Life of a Showgirl album.
Judge Lewis Liman wrote in a four-page order obtained by Deadline: “The Wayfarer Parties contend that their requested extension is necessary because Swift’s preexisting professional obligations now prevent her from being deposed within the current discovery window.
“The Wayfarer Parties have not similarly demonstrated good cause for their requested extension. The only justification they have provided for the extension is their assertion that Swift’s preexisting professional obligations now prevent her from appearing for a deposition prior to October 20, 2025.
"Importantly, however, the Wayfarer Parties have provided no discussion of when they began attempting to schedule the deposition. Discovery has been ongoing in this case for approximately six months.
"The Wayfarer Parties previously requested Swift’s deposition in May 2025 before ultimately withdrawing the subpoena. They have offered no evidence that they have served a renewed subpoena on Swift. Thus, at most, the Wayfarer Parties have demonstrated that scheduling the deposition now presents logistical difficulties; that does not answer the question of why the deposition ’could not have been conducted earlier.'
"Having failed to demonstrate appropriate diligence, the requested extension is denied.”
At the same time, the judge agreed to Blake's request for a 10-day extension on depositions for Justin and his Wayfarer Studios co-founders, Steve Sarowitz and Jamey Heath.
Taylor's lawyer had made it clear that the 35-year-old pop megastar had not agreed to the deposition but would do so "if forced".
Taylor Swift has not agreed to be deposed in the Justin Baldoni / Blake Lively case but will do so “if forced”.
According to PEOPLE, her lawyer Doug Baldridge of Venable LLP said she only learned of the deposition request from Baldoni’s team three days ago.
He said in a letter: "Further, my client did not agree to a deposition, but if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20 if the parties were able to work out their disputes.”
The case, Blake Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, et al, is scheduled to go to trial in March 2026.
