Blake Lively has been awarded more than $400,000 in attorneys’ fees after her 18-month legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
On Wednesday, judge Lewis Liman awarded the actor $363,245.40 in attorneys’ fees and $44,206.35 in costs, figures far lower than the $8m Lively had sought.
In a ruling, the judge found that Lively was entitled to only “reasonable” fees. He found that her lawyers’ billing rates were “not unreasonable” in a case of this complexity, but “the number of hours for which Lively seeks reimbursement is unreasonable.”
Liman added that her documentation was incomplete: “Lively has submitted the declaration of a purported attorney fee expert who has reviewed the billing records […] Lively has not submitted the invoices themselves.”
In December 2024, Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment on the set of domestic abuse drama It Ends With Us; the director filed a counter-defamation lawsuit against Lively the following month.
In May, they settled their dispute just weeks before it went to trial, with only the issue of attorneys’ fees and costs remaining. Today’s ruling draws a line under their long legal battle.
In July, Baldoni and his wife, Emily, spoke out about the “injustice and pain” they said they had endured as part of the legal battle.
“We’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things,” said Emily in a video posted to Instagram. “Like, how could something like this even happen? Let alone disguised as a fight for women.”
Lively has made high-profile appearances at the Met Gala and at the World Cup final after the settlement but has yet to speak publicly about the legal battle. Last month, she was absent at Taylor Swift’s wedding amid reports that the pair’s friendship had fractured after the singer was subpoenaed by Baldoni’s legal team.
