Hollywood actress Blake Lively is requesting $8 million in attorneys’ fees and costs as the legal dispute with actor-director Justin Baldoni continues. The conflict arose when Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during their work on ‘It Ends With Us’ and of orchestrating a negative campaign against her. In response, Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios filed a $400 million defamation suit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, which was later dismissed by a judge.
Lively dropped her lawsuit against Baldoni and others just before trial, and now, Judge Lewis Liman has approved her request for attorney fees under a California law safeguarding sexual abuse accusers from retaliatory defamation suits. While the judge denied her damages request, Lively’s legal team disclosed billing her $7.5 million in fees and $540,000 in legal costs for defending against the defamation suit. The attorneys argue that awarding fees could discourage future baseless suits against accusers.
Lively’s lawyers condemned the legal actions as an abuse of the system aimed at discrediting the actress and silencing potential witnesses. They emphasized that the fee award could serve as a deterrent against frivolous and retaliatory lawsuits targeting abuse accusers.
