Justin Baldoni’s lawyers fired back at Blake Lively‘s request for the It Ends With Us director to pay approximately $8 million in legal fees after their recent settlement.
“Lively fails to meet her burden to present credible evidence showing that the fees and costs she seeks to recover are reasonable and, accordingly, her fee motion should be denied in its entirety,” Baldoni’s lawyers Ellyn S. Garofalo and Bryan Freedman argued in a court filing obtained by Us Weekly on Monday, July 13.
Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios’ legal team issued a fiery response to Lively’s June 29 request that the filmmaker be held responsible for $8,035,040.88 in attorneys’ fees and other costs — which Freedman, 61, and Garofalo dismissed as a “whopping” amount in Monday’s filing. (TMZ was the first to report the court filing.)
“This is anything but a typical fee motion,” his lawyers insisted in Monday’s motion.
His attorneys compared Lively’s request to the New York Times seeking $181,622.70 in attorneys’ fees “to dismiss precisely the same defamation claim,” referring to Baldoni’s defamation case against the newspaper. (Baldoni sued the New York Times for $250 million over accusations that he engaged in a “smear campaign” against Lively but the lawsuit was dismissed in June 2025.)
Monday’s motion blasted an “excessive” expectation for Baldoni, 42, to pay for 7,070.20 billable legal hours “billed by no fewer than 82 timekeepers, to obtain the dismissal of a single defamation claim at the pleading stage.”
“The most cursory review of Lively’s submission shows multiple lawyers at the same hearings, numerous charges for lawyers conferencing, conferring, or strategizing with one another, and to put it mildly, extremely excessive research and online investigation,” Baldoni’s lawyers argued.
Baldoni ultimately asked for the $8 million request from Lively, 38, to be denied outright or “substantially reduced.” It will now be up to Judge Lewis J. Liman to determine the exact costs that Baldoni will be required to pay, if anything.
Us reached out to representatives for both Baldoni and Lively for comment.
In December 2024, Lively sued her It Ends With Us costar and director for sexual harassment and orchestrating an alleged smear campaign against her. Baldoni vehemently denied Lively’s accusations and countersued, though his lawsuit was thrown out of court in June 2025.
Following the dismissal of Baldoni’s countersuit, lawyers for both sides engaged in a lengthy discovery process that included text messages from Taylor Swift, Ryan Reynolds, Jenny Slate and Ben Affleck being released through the court.
With a May trial date looming, Baldoni and Lively’s attorneys released a joint statement on May 4 to confirm that they’d settled the broader legal dispute.
“The end product – the movie It Ends With Us – is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors – and all survivors – is a goal that we stand behind,” Lively and Baldoni said in a statement to Us via their attorneys on May 4. “We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard.”
Their statement continued, “We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”
However, the legal wrangling between the two sides continued on June 12 when Judge Liman ruled that Baldoni was liable to pay Lively’s legal fees under a 2023 California law meant to protect sexual abuse accusers from retaliatory defamation suits. (Liman denied Lively’s request for triple damages and punitive damages.)
On June 29, Lively’s lawyers asked Judge Liman to award the actress $8,035,040.88 in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs related to Baldoni’s dismissed defamation suit. The sum broke down to $7,495,526.87 in attorneys’ fees and $539,514.01 in legal costs and expenses incurred as part of the “successful defense of the Wayfarer Action.”
“Thanks to this landmark decision, those considering using a lawsuit as a weapon of intimidation have been put on notice that there are consequences for doing so,” Lively’s attorneys said in a statement to Us at the time. “The value of this ruling is in the precedent it creates, the accountability it imposes, and the protection it provides to those who may one day find themselves facing similar retaliation for speaking the truth.”
Judge Liman gave Baldoni’s attorneys until July 13 to respond, which facilitated Freedman’s motion to the court on Monday.
Ahead of this latest legal filing, Justin and his wife, Emily Baldoni, broke their silence with an Instagram video message on Wednesday, July 8.
“We are healing, and if you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear,” Justin stressed. “It looks different every day, and we have had to rethink for ourselves what is real and what matters and it’s this, it’s our family, it’s our friends, it’s our community [who] have been there for us, it’s our faith.”
He went on, “I think we’re closer and more devoted and steadfast in our faith than we’ve ever been. Also, and this has been on both of our hearts, there were so many of you who, when we didn’t have a voice, were our voice. … So many of you had discernment and you used your intuition and you trusted that, and you have given your time to fight for us. Thank you does not feel like enough, but we’re here in large part because of so many of you and all of our friends and family.”
