Justin Baldoni's team hits back at Blake Lively's new legal move

The legal battle between It Ends with Us co-stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively seems to be heating up each day.

Baldoni’s legal team has strongly criticised what they call an "abhorrent" move by Lively to shut down the defamation lawsuit against her.

On March 20, the actress’ legal team filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that her co-star’s $400 million defamation lawsuit is "vengeful and rambling."

However, they claimed Baldoni is misusing the legal system to punish Lively for speaking out about workplace retaliation and sexual harassment.

The actor's lawyer, Brian Freedman, fired back at the Another Simple Favor star, accusing her team of twisting the law to dodge responsibility.

He shared with PEOPLE: “Ms. Lively's recent motion to dismiss herself from the self-concocted disaster she initiated is one of the most abhorrent examples of abusing our legal system.”

"Stringent rules are put into place to protect the innocent and allow individuals to rightfully defend themselves. Laws are not meant to be twisted and curated by privileged elites to fit their own personal agenda,” he added.

Brian dismissed Lively’s lawsuit, calling her claims of harassment and a smear campaign pure fabricated.

Pointing to Ryan Reynolds' own attempt to get Baldoni’s defamation claim thrown out, the attorney added: “As we said yesterday in response to Mr. Reynolds' same cowardly measures, we will continue to hold Ms. Lively accountable for her actions of pure malice which include falsely accusing my clients of harassment and retaliation.”