Blake Lively Wins Her Case Against Justin Baldoni — Then Gets 5 Cents on the Dollar

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Blake Lively will receive just over $400,000 of the roughly $8 million in legal fees she had sought from actor-director Justin Baldoni following their legal battle over the 2024 film “It Ends With Us.” U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman awarded Lively $363,245.40 in attorneys’ fees and $44,206.35 in costs, against a request of $7,495,526.87 in fees and $539,514.01 in costs and expenses [1, 3]. Liman found that a California law designed to protect sexual harassment and retaliation complainants from retaliatory lawsuits only entitled Lively to recover fees tied specifically to defending against Baldoni’s defamation-related claims, not the full scope of the two-year legal war between them, noting the parties had “waged fierce battle against each other in court” [1].

Lively sued Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, in December 2024, alleging sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, emotional distress and invasion of privacy during production of “It Ends With Us,” which Baldoni directed and co-starred in alongside her. Baldoni countersued for $400 million, accusing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy; a judge dismissed that countersuit in 2025. Both sides ultimately settled the underlying case in May 2026, roughly two weeks before trial was set to begin, with terms undisclosed and a joint statement affirming commitment to “workplaces free of improprieties” [2, 4].

Why It Sucks:

Sexual Harassment Survivors and Advocates

• The protection law didn’t actually protect her. California’s statute exists to shield people who speak out about harassment from being buried in legal costs by retaliatory countersuits, yet Lively still ended up eating more than $7.6 million of her own defense bill [1].
• Winning still means losing financially. Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit was thrown out entirely, but that vindication didn’t translate into meaningful cost recovery, undercutting the practical value of prevailing in court [1, 4].
• The message to future accusers is discouraging. If a woman who beat back a nine-figure countersuit still recovers only 5% of her fees, advocates worry it signals to other potential harassment complainants that speaking up remains financially ruinous even when the law is nominally on their side [3].

Justin Baldoni’s Supporters

• The court just narrowed the harassment case. Liman’s ruling that the protective statute only covered the defamation-related sliver of the fight implicitly acknowledges that the bulk of Lively’s litigation wasn’t the kind of harassment defense the law was written for [1].
• A near-total fee denial reads as a signal. Baldoni’s camp can point to Lively recovering just 5% of her request as evidence that her broader claims of an orchestrated smear campaign didn’t hold up under judicial scrutiny [3].
• He still spent two years and his reputation defending himself. Even with the fee ruling in his favor, Baldoni absorbed enormous reputational damage from public allegations before ever getting this partial legal vindication [2, 4].

Hollywood Producers and Industry Attorneys

• A film’s legacy got swallowed by litigation. “It Ends With Us” was a box-office hit, but two years after release its cultural footprint is now inseparable from a scorched-earth legal fight between its two leads [2].
• The costs were staggering for everyone involved. Between Lively’s nearly $8 million fee request, Baldoni’s dismissed $400 million countersuit, and an undisclosed settlement, the case shows how on-set disputes can now generate legal bills that dwarf a film’s own promotional budget [1, 4].
• Future productions inherit the chilling effect. Studios and insurers now have a concrete case study in how quickly an on-set conflict can metastasize into years of litigation with no clean winner, complicating how they staff and insure future projects [3].

Sources & Citations:

[1] Washington Times: Judge grants Blake Lively $400,000 of $8M in legal fees she sought in film fight with Justin Baldoni
[2] The Hollywood Reporter: ‘It Ends With Us’ Settlement Postmortem
[3] NBC News: Blake Lively awarded $400,000 in legal fees over dismissed Justin Baldoni lawsuit
[4] TMZ: Blake Lively Awarded $400K in Attorneys’ Fees For Justin Baldoni Case