Blake Lively Awarded $400,000 in Attorneys’ Fees in Justin Baldoni Case

A judge on Wednesday awarded Blake Lively about $400,000 in attorneys’ fees in her dispute with “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni, well short of the $8 million she had sought.

Lively and Baldoni settled their 18-month legal war in May, avoiding a federal trial that was scheduled for later that month. At the time, the only loose end was Lively’s motion for attorneys’ fees for having to defend against Baldoni’s failed defamation suit.

Judge Lewis Liman on Wednesday awarded her $363,000 in attorneys’ fees and another $44,000 in court costs. In his ruling, the judge found that Lively was entitled only to the “reasonable” fees related to defending against the defamation suit.

Liman ruled that while the attorneys’ billing rates were “not unreasonable,” given the high stakes of the case and the complexity of the issues, “(t)he number of hours for which Lively seeks reimbursement is unreasonable.”

Lively had asked for $7.5 million in attorneys’ fees and another $540,000 in court costs. Instead, the judge awarded her just double what the New York Times was awarded for defending itself from Baldoni’s defamation case.