{"id":658830,"date":"2026-08-27T07:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/658830\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:18:14","slug":"blake-lively-gets-400000-of-8-million-she-sought-in-baldoni-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/658830\/","title":{"rendered":"Blake Lively Gets $400,000 of $8 Million She Sought in Baldoni Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA federal judge ruled Wednesday that Justin Baldoni<\/a> must pay Blake Lively<\/a> a little more than $400,000 of the $8 million she sought for attorneys\u2019 fees, according to The Associated Press<\/a>. The judgment follows the settlement Baldoni and Lively reached following lawsuits related to Baldoni\u2019s alleged misconduct on the set of It Ends With Us.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe is now to receive $363,245.40 in lawyers\u2019 fees and $44,206.35 in costs. Her lawyers previously requested $7,495,526.87 in fees and and $539,514.01 in costs and expenses.<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Lewis J. Liman, who wrote his decision in Manhattan, said that a California law limits the amount of legal fees Lively could recoup. The law was meant to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory lawsuits. He interpreted the law to mean that Baldoni would reimburse her only for what she paid to defend herself against defamation claims, rather than every claim Baldoni lodged at her.<\/p>\n

\n\tBryan Freedman, who represents Baldoni, told TMZ<\/a> he respected Section 47.1, which is meant to protect \u201creal survivors\u201d but suggested the law \u201cwas applied in ways it was never intended for.\u201d But he still sees it as a win for Baldoni. \u201cThe ruling is a significant victory for my clients and sends a clear message that, no matter how powerful you may be, the courtroom is not a place to take advantage of the law for your own personal gain,\u201d he said. (Freedman did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone\u2018s request for comment.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJustin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties lost their meritless retaliatory $400 million lawsuit, which two different courts held was designed to stifle public criticism and silence Blake Lively and others,\u201d Lively\u2019s attorneys, Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb, said in a statement to Rolling Stone. \u201cThis first-ever award of fees and costs under this California law is historic, and demonstrates that there are real consequences of bringing retaliatory lawsuits. As we have said from day one, Blake Lively\u2019s case was never about money \u2014 it was about accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tLively had sued Baldoni for sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, leading a smear campaign against her, and other claims. Baldoni denied these allegations and accused Lively of using her lawsuit as a measure to take control of the film, whose subject was domestic violence. He and his production company, Wayfarer Studios LLC, countersued Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million alleging defamation, civil extortion, and other claims. A judge later dismissed Baldoni\u2019s countersuit. They announced they had reached a settlement two weeks before a trial was to begin.<\/p>\n

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\n\tWhen Liman decided that Lively should get \u201creasonable\u201d attorneys\u2019 fees, her lawyers sent a bill that totaled more than $8 million, which, they said, represented discounted rates. In the filing, Gottlieb revealed that his typical hourly rate is $2,795 an hour but that he\u2019d lowered it to $2,187 for Lively. The 224 hours he spent on her case alone totaled some $457,000.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard,\u201d Lively and Baldoni said in a joint statement when they reached their settlement. \u201cWe remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Justin Baldoni must pay Blake Lively a little more than $400,000 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[8150,434,18,117,19,17,8149],"class_list":["post-658830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-blake-lively","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-justin-baldoni"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}