Blake Lively It is seeking USD 8 million as legal costs from the actor and director Justin Baldoni After settling their differences over the acrimonious production of their 2024 film ‘It Ends With Us’.Lively’s lawyers have covered about $7.5 million in attorney fees and about $500,000 in other costs from the two law firms representing her in a court filing Tuesday.
Blake Lively’s lawyers ask Justin Baldoni to pay
One of Lively’s lawyers, Michael Gottlieb, wrote in a court filing that he charged her an average hourly rate of USD 2,187 – a discount from her usual USD 2,795 an hour. He says he billed 224 hours for his defense work in Baldoni’s countersuit, for a total fee of USD 457,000.Baldoni and her production company, Wayfarer Studios LLC, “employed scorched-earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively’s resources,” her lawyers wrote in their filing.“They could have ended it (and offered to reimburse Lively) at any time. Having refused to do so, they should be ordered to reimburse Lively for all costs, attorney’s fees and expenses they wrongfully incurred,” they wrote.
The judge has yet to approve the amount
In allowing Lively to recover legal costs, the judge cited a California law designed to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory lawsuits meant to intimidate and silence victims.Liman said the law requires that the plaintiff must pay the defendant’s legal fees and costs if the defamation claim filed in response to the suit is dismissed, even if the case is not made out by the collection of evidence.Liman said an exception would be if Baldoni and Wayfarer’s studio could prove Lively’s claims were malicious, but they presented no evidence to show that.A judge still has to approve the amount he’s asking for.
The judge rejected the treble damages claim
In their court filing, Lively’s lawyers said Gottlieb should pay US$4.5 million to the firm Wilkie Farr & Gallagher and about US$3 million to the firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.The judge rejected Lively’s claims to pursue treble damages and punitive damages under California law, saying they “did not fall within the carefully crafted federal procedural rules designed to protect the rights of parties.”
Blake Lively and Justin Bald
Lively and Baldoni settled last month, just before a trial began in federal court in Manhattan on Lively’s claims that he tried to damage her public reputation and credibility after she accused him of sexually harassing her while filming the movie.Baldoni, who directed the dark romantic drama and starred alongside Lively, has denied the claims.Lively did not receive any money in the settlement, but a judge later ruled that she was entitled to recover some of her legal costs after Baldoni filed a countersuit against her.
About Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal dispute
Lively, 38, sued Baldoni, 42, and Wayfarer’s studio in December 2024, alleging they conspired with publicists to tarnish her reputation after she personally alleged sexual harassment on the set of “It Ends With Us.”Weeks later, Baldoni sued Lively, accusing her, her husband – the ‘Deadpool’ actor Ryan Reynolds – and their promoters of defamation and extortion.Baldoni has denied harassing her or orchestrating a smear campaign. He claims the allegations about his behavior were made by Lively as part of an attempt to seize creative control of the movie.Judge Lewis J. Liman threw out Baldoni’s countersuit last year and then dismissed Lively’s sexual harassment claims, saying she couldn’t bring them because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee on the movie set.
About ‘It Ends With Us’
‘It Ends With Us’, an adaptation of Colin Hoover’s 2016 best-selling novel about a relationship plagued by domestic violence, released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations.
