A judge said on Friday that Blake Lively, who settled her legal claims over their 2024 movie “It Ends With Us,” can get some legal fees back from fellow actor and director Justin Baldoni, but not punitive damages or other relief she requested.
In a written ruling, Judge Lewis J. Liman stated that Blake Lively may be reimbursed for legal fees and expenses incurred in defending herself against a countersuit filed by Justin Baldoni, which followed her own lawsuit against him in December 2024.
Liman referenced a California law intended to shield victims of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory litigation intended to frighten and silence them in his written decision on Friday.
The judge explained that under the law, a plaintiff is obligated to cover a defendant’s legal fees and costs if a defamation claim brought as a counteraction is thrown out, even when the underlying facts have not yet been fully established through evidence.
Judge Lewis J. Liman noted that an exception could apply if Justin Baldoni and his company Wayfarer Studios LLC were able to demonstrate that malice motivated Blake Lively’s claims. However, he said they had not presented any evidence to support such an argument.
Because they did not fall under “carefully crafted federal procedural rules designed to protect the rights of the parties,” the judge denied her requests to triple any damages and seek punitive damages under California law.
Just before a trial on Lively’s accusations of retaliation was about to begin, Baldoni and Lively resolved most of their disagreement last month. She was allowed to pursue legal fees even though she did not receive any money from the transaction.
Both parties saw Liman’s decision as a win in their speeches.
The judgment of legal fees “makes it clear that Ms. Lively brought her claims in good faith, that there was no evidence she acted with malice, and that she is the prevailing defendant,” according to Lively attorneys Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson.
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, claimed that Lively “pivoted to exploit a California law” in order to obtain damages after her demands for $300 million in fees and damages were denied, with the judge dismissing 10 of her 13 claims prior to the settlement.
“Once again, she failed,” the judge said, adding that Blake Lively was only eligible at this stage for limited attorney’s fees tied to a single claim that formed part of the wider case and existed for just a short period of time.
The lawyer stated that his clients had been “threatened by one of the most famous movie stars,” who, he alleged, sought to damage their reputations and undermine their life’s work.
“Throughout this process, innocent people had their reputations unfairly tarnished. There was no sexual harassment. There was no retaliation. There was no smear campaign. The court recognized it, the record reflects it, and we have maintained it from the very beginning,” Freedman said.
In late 2024, Lively accused Baldoni and his production business of sexual harassment and retribution. She said that the actor planned an attempt to harm her credibility and public image.
Baldoni, who co-starred with Lively in the dark romantic drama and directed it, denied pestering her or planning a smear campaign. He asserted that Lively fabricated the criticism of his actions in an attempt to take creative control of the film. In his countersuit, he accused Lively and her spouse, Ryan Reynolds, star of “Deadpool,” of extortion and defamation.
Liman previously dismissed Justin Baldoni’s countersuit last year, and later also threw out Blake Lively’s sexual harassment claims. He ruled that she could not pursue those allegations because she was classified as an independent contractor, not an employee, during her work on the film set.
Released in August 2024, It Ends With Us—based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel about a romance that descends into domestic violence—surpassed initial box office projections.
Blake Lively made her film debut in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) and later gained wider recognition for her role in the television series Gossip Girl, which ran from 2007 to 2012. She has since featured in several films, including The Town and The Shallows.
Justin Baldoni is best known for his role in the TV comedy series Jane the Virgin. He also directed the 2019 romantic drama Five Feet Apart and authored Man Enough, a book that explores and questions traditional ideas of masculinity.
