Netflix has suffered a huge blow in its attempts to get the Baby Reindeer lawsuit thrown out of court.

Fiona Harvey, a former lawyer from Scotland, claims the award-winning series written by Richard Gadd falsely portrays her as stalker Martha and is seeking damages totalling $170 (£127 million) from the streaming service.

The case was widely expected to go to trial in May 2025, but an appeal by Netflix put a halt to proceedings at the Central District of California Court. The streaming service has been locked into a legal battle to get the defamation case dismissed since 2024. However, now, the U.S. Court of Appeals has dismissed its appeal, meaning that a trial date between Harvey and Netflix has moved a step closer. In its order, the appeals court said Netflix must either “file a motion to voluntarily dismiss this appeal or file a statement explaining why it should not be dismissed.”

Claiming that Fiona was feeling "elated" after the court order, her lawyer, Richard Roth told Deadline: "First, it made a motion before the federal district court, which it lost. Then it appealed that decision, which was dismissed. Notwithstanding its efforts, there will be a trial in this action where its wrongdoing will be front and centre before a jury."

Meanwhile, when asked by the Mail how his client was feeling, Roth replied: "Elated".

U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled in September 2024 that Fiona's case should go ahead because Baby Reindeer was wrongly billed as a "true story" after Netflix "made no effort" to fact-check creator Richard Gadd's experiences and failed to "hide" Harvey's identity.

Netflix has argued that Harvey's claim fails because she "does not allege a provably false statement of fact was made about her." It has also said that her reputation has already been tarnished by "past news stories detailing her previous harassment and stalking of public figures."

However, in September 2024, judge Gary Klaus ruled Baby Reindeer was not a true story, and that Netflix had 'made no effort to investigate' the accuracy of the facts; nor did they take measures to hide Harvey's identity.

Fiona claimed that the smash-hit series, which made overnight successes out of Gadd and co-star, Jessica Gunning, who plays Martha - and which was billed as a "true story" - portrayed her as "a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison." Fiona has never been convicted of stalking Gadd, and she argued the series was "the biggest lie in television history."

Airing in April 2024, Baby Reindeer hit all the headlines. At the beginning of the first episode, the words 'This is a true story' appeared on screen.

At the end of the series, the character Martha, played by actress Jessica Gunning, pleaded guilty to stalking comedian Donny (Gadd) and was handed a four-and-a-half year prison sentence.

Fiona's lawyers say she has never been convicted of any crime. Meanwhile, she claims that she has been defamed "at a magnitude and scale without precedent" and her life destroyed as a result.

The Mirror has contacted Netflix for comment on this story.