Blake Lively now has a number for the legal bills she wants Justin Baldoni to cover, and it's a hefty one. In a Monday court filing, the 38-year-old actor asked for $8,035,040.88 in attorneys' fees and costs tied to what her lawyers call the "successful defense" of Baldoni's defamation-related suit over their film It Ends With Us. The request covers roughly $7.5 million in legal fees and about $540,000 in litigation expenses, reports People, with Lively reserving the right to seek more for the fight over fees itself. Her team says the high cost reflects intense media scrutiny and heavy discovery, including thousands of documents from both sides and third parties.
The filing alleges that Baldoni's team "employed scorched-earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively's resources, including a near-daily press campaign promoting their sham lawsuit, propounding expansive and irrelevant discovery demands, obstructing discovery directed at them and affiliated third parties, and forcing Lively to seek frequent relief from the Court to reign in their abusive docket filings," per Deadline. The dispute is now narrowed to money after the broader case settled in May, weeks before trial.
US District Judge Lewis J. Liman previously ruled that Lively can seek reimbursement under a California law that protects people from retaliatory defamation suits after reporting sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation, but he rejected her bid for treble and punitive damages. Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, must respond to the fee request by July 13, after which the judge will decide how much, if anything, they owe. Baldoni's camp has argued Lively won only "limited" fees and misused the statute; his representatives have not commented on the new filing.
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