Blake Lively is set to recover just over $400,000 in legal fees and costs from Justin Baldoni as part of their contentious court fight — far short of the $8 million-plus she had sought after the case was settled, Our News Outlet can reveal.
The New York ruling on Wednesday marked a significant setback for the actress, with the court awarding her only a small fraction — about 5 percent — of the amount she requested for defending against Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit.
In his decision, the judge found the number of hours billed by Lively’s legal team to be “unreasonable” and took issue with “discrepancies” in the expenses she sought to recover.
The fee ruling comes months after the same judge dismissed most of the claims in Lively’s sexual harassment case against her It Ends With Us co-star, with the parties later agreeing to resolve the matter without any money changing hands.
Judge Lewis Liman had also previously thrown out Baldoni’s $400 million defamation countersuit against Lively, while allowing her to pursue reimbursement for legal fees tied only to defending that specific claim.
In an order obtained by Our News Outlet, Judge Lewis Liman wrote: “The clerk of court is respectfully directed to enter judgment for Lively in the amount of $363,245.40 in attorneys’ fees and $44,206.35 in costs.”
Blake Lively will receive more than $400,000 in legal fees and costs from Justin Baldoni in their bitter court battle, according to court filings on Wednesday
Justin Baldoni had previously rejected Blake Lively’s request for $8.3 million in legal fees, with his attorneys calling the demand “deeply flawed”
The total award amounts to $407,451.75 – a fraction of the $8 million she originally demanded in June.
Lively had claimed Baldoni owed her $7,495,526.87 in legal fees and $539,514.01 in costs that she accumulated in 10 months from fighting his countersuit before it was dismissed.
But Judge Liman appears to have agreed with Baldoni’s lawyers that some of the sums Lively was seeking were ‘excessive’ and ‘exorbitant,’ as they claimed in legal filings.
In his 21-page ruling, Judge Liman said that both sides ‘have waged (a) fierce battle against each other in court.’
Judge Liman said that the hourly rate charged by attorneys for Lively and Baldoni was ‘not unreasonable’ as the case presented ‘substantial financial and reputational risks’ to both sides.
But the ‘number of hours for which Lively seeks reimbursement is unreasonable,’ the judge stated, noting Lively did not actually submit the invoices to the court and instead submitted forms outlining the payments.
It Ends with Us earned $148 million in domestic box office and $350 million globally, but whatever goodwill the film garnered was overshadowed by the allegations made by its stars
The actor and director’s life has been upended by the case, which started with a falling out on the set of the blockbuster domestic violence movie, It Ends With Us. Above, Baldoni and wife Emily leaving court after a ‘settlement conference’ in February
Judge Liman said that Baldoni’s lawyers had ‘identified a series of flaws in the [Lively] records that are illustrative of broader discrepancies and deficiencies in the fees schedule.’
The billing records for internal communications were ‘vaguely described’ and didn’t identify the work that was performed, the ruling stated.
Judge Liman also rejected Lively’s demand to be reimbursed for the cost to her PR team because ‘media relations were not integral to defending the defamation claim brought against Lively,’ according to the ruling.
In a statement released following the order on Wednesday, Lively’s lawyers Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb said: ‘Justin 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.
‘This 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’s case was never about money – it was about accountability.
Lively and Baldoni finally agreed to a settlement in the two-year legal battle in May – just two weeks before the case was set to go to trial. Above, on the set of It Ends With Us in 2024
‘Blake Lively’s lawsuit exposed an industry of secret online smear campaigns that largely target women, and unsurprisingly involve the same players.
‘She lifted the curtain for other victims, and set the precedent for others to come forward and expose similar conduct. This result demonstrates that the legal system is not as easily manipulated as social media, and still functions as a force for accountability.’
Baldoni’s lawyer Brian Freedman told Our News Outlet: ‘The 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.’
Lively first sued Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios production company in December 2024 for alleged sexual harassment on the set of the movie, and defamation.
Baldoni responded the following month with a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and the New York Times, which was the first to publish her claims.
In October 2025, a judge dismissed Baldoni’s case and in May this year, after a judge dismissed most of Lively’s claims, she agreed to settle her claim.
But the legal battle didn’t end there.
Weeks later, Lively filed court documents seeking to recoup her legal expenses from the drawn-out lawsuit.
Last month, court filings revealed just how much she was demanding: $4,544,094 from Willkie Farr & Gallagher and $2,951,432 from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, two high-profile law firms.
However, the final bill would have been $300,000 higher because of costs related to a subsequent hearing on June 1, bringing it to $8.3 million.
Court documents previously revealed that Lively’s lawyers charged $155 for a six-minute phone call and $1,400 for an attorney staying one night at a five-star hotel.
In legal papers, Wilkie describes itself as a ‘premier international law firm’ with 1,300 lawyers in 16 offices around the country.
Lively leaving federal court following a court-ordered settlement conference in her civil lawsuit against actor and director Justin Baldoni in February
Lively’s lead lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, states that he charges $2,795 an hour but gave Lively a ‘discounted’ rate of $2,187.
In total, he billed 224 hours or $457,000 and he was one of a number of attorneys engaged in the case.
Such fees are ‘reasonable,’ Gottlieb claimed at the time, adding that Lively had paid her bills ‘in full.’
In another filing, Lively’s lawyers claimed that Baldoni’s legal team employed ‘scorched-earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively’s resources’.
As a result, she had to seek ‘frequent relief from the court to reign [sic] in their abusive behavior,’ claimed the filings signed by lawyer Esra Hudson on behalf of both law firms.
In response, Baldoni’s lawyer Ellyn Garofalo said in court filings last month that it was ‘excessive’ to claim $7,070,20 in billable hours.
She argued that the schedules of costs from Lively were ‘extremely overinclusive and deeply flawed’ and included work by 82 people.
Lively’s lawyers spent an ‘exorbitant amount of time conferring internally’ and were ‘inefficient,’ the filing stated.
Baldoni’s legal team had argued that any fees awarded should be seriously reduced based on multiple factors.
‘Lively does not provide billing statements or other records to support her $7.5 million demand, much less allocate fees to her defense of Wayfarer’s defamation claim,’ attorneys for Baldoni told the court at the time.
Other key factors Baldoni’s team cited in their filing were Lively’s inability to prove that the total was based on reasonable hours and rates; a lack of evidence to support her claims; and misguided calculations as to fees that can or cannot be recovered.
Baldoni’s attorneys said that Lively was also asking for ‘a whopping $539,514.01 in costs and expenses without providing evidence to substantiate the costs or attribute them to tasks covered by Section 47.1.’
‘In sum, 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,’ Baldoni’s lawyers said in the filing.
