Justin Baldoni’s legal team has urged a judge to either deny Blake Lively’s request for over $8 million in legal fees “in its entirety”, or “substantially reduce” the amount.
Justin Baldoni has called on a judge to deny or “substantially reduce” Blake Lively’s request for $8 million in legal fees.
The It Ends with Us co-stars were locked in a legal dispute since December 2024, when Blake accused Justin – who also directed the film – of sexual harassment and co-ordinating a smear campaign against her, prompting him and his Wayfarer Studios to hit back with a countersuit against the 38-year-old actress and her husband Ryan Reynolds, accusing the Hollywood couple of defamation and extortion.
In April, the couple reached an out-of-court settlement, but now the 42-year-old filmmaker has filed a request for a federal judge regarding her latest request.
Blake has called for $8 million in attorneys fees, plus “$539,514.01 in costs and expenses”.
In a filing on Monday (13.07.26), Justin’s legal team argued: “Lively fails to meet her burden to present credible evidence showing that the fees and costs she seeks to recover are reasonable and, accordingly, her fee motion should be denied in its entirety.
“At minimum, the Court should substantially reduce the request, using as a benchmark the $181,622.70 the Times sought after securing dismissal of Count II on its separate motion to dismiss – the same outcome Lively achieved.”
In 2024, Justin sued the New York Times for $250 million, as he accused the newspaper of defaming him over a report claiming he and his PR team carried out a “smear campaign” against Blake.
The claim was later dismissed, and the Times sought $181,622.70 in attorneys fees “to dismiss precisely the same defamation claim”.
In the new filing this week, Justin’s team has argued that the case with Blake was overstaffed, with multiple attorneys at hearings, as well as excessive internal conferencing, with 7,020.20 billable hours billed by 82 timekeepers.
It’s claimed in the filing that this is around 20 times what has been previously approved by courts in other high profile defamation cases.
Justin’s team added: “The most cursory review of Lively’s submission shows multiple lawyers at the same hearings, numerous charges for lawyers conferencing, conferring, or strategizing with one another, and to put it mildly, extremely excessive research and online investigation.”
On June 29, a filing from Blake argued that the legal fees is due to the “successful defense of the Wayfarer Action”, and to cover legal work between January 2025 and June 2025, when Justin filed a countersuit against Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 49.
Her legal team has claimed the work carried out was “comprehensive and necessary to achieve the complete win that was secured”.
Justin had his countersuit claims dismissed by a judge and in April, Blake’s sexual harassment claims were tossed out on jurisdictional grounds, leading to them reaching an out-of-court settlement, just two weeks before they were set to go to trial in New York.
A court ruling later said Blake could only seek legal costs from Justin, but not damages under a Californian law designed to protect anyone making sexual misconduct allegations.
Justin’s legal team claimed they “won”, while Blake’s attorneys insisted she “is the prevailing defendant”.
Justin Baldoni wants judge to ‘deny or substantially reduce’ Blake Lively’s $8m legal fees request
