Blake Lively wins just 5% of legal fee demand in Justin Baldoni case
Judge, however, gives a reason for not fully awarding what Blake Lively asked
When Blake Lively locked in a court battle with co-star Justin Baldoni over a series of allegations she leveled against him during It Ends With Us making — she reportedly spent a lot of money on lawyers.
Both parties settled the dispute before the case went to a federal trial.
But the Green Lantern actress wanted Baldoni to pay $8 million in total, including $7.5 million in attorneys' fees.
Now, however, Judge Lewis Liman did not approve such a staggering amount.
Instead, he ordered Baldoni to pay $407,000 — about 5% of what Lively asked.
The judge reasoned that Lively's legal team charged high hourly rates but that they were reasonable given the case's complications, yet they spent unreasonably more time arguing the defamation case.
In the court documents, it said, "While the attorneys’ billing rates were not unreasonable, given the high stakes of the case and the complexity of the issues, (t)he number of hours for which Lively seeks reimbursement is unreasonable.”
Lively first sued Baldoni in 2024 for sexually harassing her on the set of It Ends With Us and separately for launching an alleged online smear campaign.
In response, the actor counter-sued her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for reportedly hijacking the film's creative control and therefore inventing fake allegations against him.
