A Van Nuys Superior Court case involving Jada Pinkett Smith is seeing new developments as the plaintiff, Bilaal Salaam, renews his request to depose the actress. Salaam asserts that he has not been given a date for Pinkett Smith’s deposition despite providing notice to her attorneys two months ago.
The lawsuit stems from Salaam's allegations that Pinkett Smith became upset after he declined to do crisis management following the 94th Academy Awards incident, where Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. Salaam further claims that he received threats after Pinkett Smith discovered his plans to publish a memoir detailing her personal business.
On Tuesday, Salaam filed court papers with Judge Eric Harmon, reiterating that Pinkett Smith's deposition testimony is crucial for him to gather discovery. Salaam, who is representing himself in the legal battle, states that he cannot schedule depositions for any other witnesses until Pinkett Smith's testimony is complete. "The delay is causing me ongoing prejudice," Salaam stated in his pleadings.
Salaam also noted that his "good faith efforts to resolve the dispute without involving the judge" have been exhausted.
However, attorneys for Pinkett Smith have filed their own court papers, arguing that Salaam's proposed revisions to the court’s standard deposition protective order are unwarranted. They contend that Salaam seeks these changes because he opposes an order that would prevent him from disclosing confidential materials to law enforcement. Additionally, they state Salaam believes he should be able to reveal information he says he possessed before the current litigation began.
Pinkett Smith’s legal team acknowledged that they had agreed to Salaam's request that the protective order would not apply to a prior civil harassment court proceeding between the two parties. Despite this, the attorneys maintain that the parties remain at an impasse because Salaam continues to insist on the same two proposed modifications that a judge previously rejected.
According to Salaam, Pinkett Smith's attorneys have conditioned all deposition scheduling on the resolution of this protective order dispute. Salaam argues that this is "not a lawful basis for indefinite non-appearance" and that Pinkett Smith cannot use a pending related motion to hold a properly noticed deposition in suspension indefinitely.
Salaam initially filed the lawsuit last November 7. A judge partially granted Pinkett Smith’s anti-SLAPP motion on April 13, which pared down some of the claims. The claims that remain in the lawsuit concern Pinkett Smith’s alleged threats, coercion, and intimidation of Salaam through intermediaries.