New York, New York – Justin Baldoni‘s legal team has pushed back at Blake Lively’s “excessive” request for legal fees after the It Ends With Us co-stars’ surprise settlement.
On Monday, the 42-year-old’s attorneys urged a judge to reject or “substantially reduce” Lively’s request, per People.
Lively has asked Baldoni for more than $8 million, which her team claims was required to fight the actor-director’s defamation lawsuit.
Baldoni’s team slammed her request as “anything but a typical fee motion” and argued that her legal team charged “excessive” rates.
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His lawyers further claimed that the case was overstaffed, writing that there were “multiple lawyers at the same hearings” and “numerous charges for lawyers conferencing, conferring, or strategizing with one another”.
The pair’s legal battle began in December 2024 when Lively sued Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and retaliation. Baldoni fired back with a defamation suit against his 38-year-old co-star as well as The New York Times over its reporting on Lively’s claims.
Both of his defamation suits were dismissed, and the two ultimately avoided going to trial by reaching a settlement regarding Lively’s accusations, which a judge had cut from 13 claims to just three.
Baldoni, who has denied Lively’s allegations, broke his silence on the high-profile legal battle earlier this month in a social media video alongside his wife, Emily.
“What I will say is that there have been so many painful things that have been spoken into existence over the last couple of years,” he said. “That created so much noise, and we didn’t want to add to the noise. So we just wanted to let the justice system run its course.”
Lively’s team, meanwhile, argued that because of the decision ordering Baldoni to pay legal fees, “those considering using a lawsuit as a weapon of intimidation have been put on notice that there are consequences for doing so.”
