Blake Lively Awarded About $400,000 in Legal Fees From Justin Baldoni Dispute

Judge Lewis Liman has awarded Blake Lively roughly $400,000 in attorneys' fees and court costs in her long-running legal dispute with Justin Baldoni — a fraction of the approximately $8 million she sought, according to Variety.

The 47-page order, issued by U.S. District Judge Liman, breaks down to $363,000 in attorneys' fees and $44,000 in court costs. Lively had asked for $7.5 million in attorneys' fees and another $540,000 in costs — roughly twenty times what the judge ultimately granted, Variety reported on 26 August 2026.

Liman ruled that Lively was entitled only to the "reasonable" attorneys' fees tied to defending against Baldoni's defamation suit — not the full cost of the broader legal war. She had initially sought treble damages (triple the actual amount) and punitive damages, but Liman previously ruled those remedies were not available under federal law.

The dispute traces back to December 2024, when Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department alleging that Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios had launched an online smear campaign against her. Liman found that Lively had made sexual misconduct complaints against Baldoni, and that those complaints were protected by litigation privilege — a legal doctrine shielding statements made in the course of court proceedings. Baldoni's $400 million defamation suit against Lively was dismissed on that basis, and his separate defamation suit against the New York Times was dismissed after the court ruled the paper's coverage was a fair report of protected proceedings.

Lively sought the fee award under a 2023 California law designed to discourage frivolous defamation suits against accusers who come forward with sexual assault allegations. The law allows prevailing parties to recover legal costs, but Liman's narrow reading of what qualified as "reasonable" kept the award far below Lively's request.

For scale, the $407,000 total is roughly double what the New York Times was awarded for defending itself from Baldoni's defamation case.

Lively and Baldoni settled their 18-month legal battle in May 2026, avoiding a federal trial that had been scheduled for later that month. The settlement closed the books on the headline-grabbing feud that began during the production and promotion of "It Ends With Us," the Colleen Hoover adaptation that paired the two as co-stars.