Lively sued Baldoni for 20 times less than she asked for

Actress Blake Lively will receive 407 thousand dollars from Justin Baldoni for legal expenses — the judge considered her appetite of 8 million unfounded and cut the amount to almost symbolic.

An expensive victory turned out to be not so expensive

The protracted war between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni took another turn, and again not in favor of the plaintiff — although formally the victory remained with her, xrust is surprised. Federal Judge Lewis Lyman on Wednesday ordered Baldoni to pay the actress $407,000 to cover legal fees. The amount sounds impressive until you remember that Lively herself insisted on compensation of 8.04 million dollars — almost 670 million rubles at the current exchange rate. As a result, she received about 5% of what she requested, that is, a little more than 33 million rubles.

The story has been dragging on for more than a year and a half and has already accumulated counterclaims, correspondence leaked to the media, and statements from lawyers on both sides. It all started with the film “It Ends with Us,” a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel, where Lively played the main role, and Baldoni acted as both a co-star and director. In December 2024, the actress accused him of sexual harassment and attempts to ruin her reputation after the release of the film. Baldoni categorically denied the accusations and in January 2025 filed a counterclaim for libel against her — with claims amounting to $400 million.

Why the judge was not impressed by the hourly rate

It was from this defamatory lawsuit that the current decision was born: since Baldoni lost, he must pay part of Lively's legal defense, as prescribed by a 2023 California law that protects victims of harassment from retaliatory claims by the accused. Formally, the precedent is truly the first of its kind for this norm.

But the judge was not generous. He directly called some of Lively's lawyers' hourly rates — in some places exceeding $2,000 per hour, that is, about 166 thousand rubles for sixty minutes of work — «unreasonable» even taking into account the complexity of the process and its resonance. According to Liman, the actress's team asked for payment for the excessive number of hours and did not really explain what kind of work was behind it. As a result, compensation was limited to expenses directly for defending against a libel claim, excluding expenses for communicating with the media and defending against a motion for sanctions.

It is worth recalling: the court rejected Baldoni’s claim back in June, and in the fall — after the defendant did not file an amended version of the claims on time — the case was officially closed. The judge then rejected Lively's allegations of harassment and retaliation against Baldoni himself, but allowed her to continue her litigation against the production company Wayfarer Studios. That dispute ended in a settlement in May—without a single dollar of compensation for the actress.

It's not about the money, but the gain is still modest

class=»notranslate»>__GTAG5__ Lively's lawyers — Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson — were quick to call the decision «historic»: according to them, it proves that there are real costs for retaliatory lawsuits, and «the case was never about money — only liability.» Baldoni's lawyer, Brian Friedman, fired back: The decision shows that the courtroom is not a place for powerful people to use the law for personal gain.

Social networks reacted to the news more restrainedly than previous rounds of the scandal: some commentators ironic that the “principled position” cost several times less than the stated one, others remind that a symbolic victory in court still remains a victory — especially considering that the main lawsuit against Lively's Wayfarer didn't receive a dime. Both sides agreed in advance not to appeal the decision on legal fees, so the financial part of the confrontation, apparently, is finally closed — although Lively's case against Wayfarer itself has not yet formally put an end to the whole story.

Sources:
reuters.com
nbcnews.com
aol.com

Xrust Lively sued Baldoni for 20 times less than she asked for