Arabic version: قاضٍ يمنح بليك لايفلي أكثر من 400 ألف دولار كرسوم

According to The Guardian, Blake Lively has been awarded more than $400,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs following her 18-month legal battle with Justin Baldoni. Judge Lewis Liman awarded $363,245.40 in attorneys’ fees and $44,206.35 in costs, substantially less than the $8m Lively had sought.

In his ruling, Liman said Lively was entitled only to “reasonable” fees. He found that the billing rates charged by her lawyers were “not unreasonable” given the complexity of the case, but concluded that “the number of hours for which Lively seeks reimbursement is unreasonable.”

The judge also said Lively’s documentation was incomplete. Liman wrote that she had submitted a declaration from a purported attorney-fee expert who reviewed billing records, but had not submitted the invoices themselves.

Lively accused Baldoni in December 2024 of sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment during production of the domestic abuse drama It Ends With Us. Baldoni filed a counter-defamation lawsuit against Lively the following month. The pair settled their dispute in May, weeks before trial, leaving attorneys’ fees and costs as the remaining issue.

The ruling closes their extended legal battle. In July, Baldoni and his wife, Emily, spoke in an Instagram video about the “injustice and pain” they said they had experienced. Lively has not publicly discussed the legal battle since the settlement.