Blake Lively Wants $8M In Legal Fees From Justin Baldoni

Two weeks after a federal judge ruled Justin Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios have to pay Blake Lively‘s legal fees for the year-long-plus court battle between the It Ends With Us stars, the harassment and retaliation-claiming actress has handed in a bill.

That’s how much Blake Lively says it cost her to see Baldoni’s $400 million defamation and extortion suit countersuit combated and ultimately dismissed.

“Lively respectfully requests the Court award her reasonable attorneys’ fees of $7,495,526.87 and costs in the amount of $539,514.01,” states a filing early this AM from the Another Simple Favor star’s lawyers.

Of course, this being Lively vs. Baldoni, and with more possible damages to come, it’s never just going to be about the math — even with the actress and her spouse Ryan Reynolds having ample resources of their own and Baldoni having his studio co-founder billionaire Steve Sarowitz’s debt card on hand.

“The Wayfarer Parties employed scorched-earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively’s resources, including a near-daily press campaign promoting their sham lawsuit, propounding expansive and irrelevant discovery demands, obstructing discovery directed at them and affiliated third parties, and forcing Lively to seek frequent relief from the Court to reign in their abusive docket filings,” declares the 15-page memorandum of law.

“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, lead Lively lawyers Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson added to Deadline Tuesday after the documents were placed in the court docket. “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.”

Baldoni’s side have until July 13 to either agree to the more than $8 million or put up a fight. Reps for the Wayfarer Studios co-founder did not respond this morning to Deadline’s request for comment on Lively’s math and her filings.

Of note, the determination by Judge Lewis Liman came under California’s relatively untested Protecting Survivors from Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Act (aka Civil Code Section 47.1), which was introduced in 2023. Also of note, if the amount Lively is looking for seems low or low-ish to you, remember this is focused on Baldoni’s countersuit — which was first filed weeks after she filed her initial sexual harassment and retaliation complaint in late 2024 against the Jane the Virgin actor and his inner circle with the California Civil Rights Department. 

With just a few weeks to go before a Big Apple trial and several unsuccessful swings at a settlement, Lively and Baldoni came to a deal or sorts in May of this year.

Still unresolved issues lingered over that January 2025 countersuit by Baldoni and his Wayfarer team of Sarowitz, PR execs Melissa Nathan, Jennifer Abel, and CEO Jamey Heath, even though it was tossed out in June 2025.

Judge Liman gave the Bryan Freedman-led Baldoni legal team the right to file an amended complaint, but they never did. At the same time, Judge Liman also killed Baldoni’s separate $250 million suit against The New York Times, which first published news of Lively’s Golden State CRD move just before Christmas 2024.

With all the drama in this settled-but-not-settled situation, Baldoni, the deep pocketed Sarowitz and Wayfarer are far from out of the legal woods.

For one thing, Wayfarer’s nearly year-old suit against its own insurance companies over litigation payouts is heating up again. Even though Sarowitz infamously allegedly once promised “to spend up to $100 million to ruin” Lively, it seems the Paylocity investor wants someone else to spend that dime — New York Marine and General Insurance Company, QBE Insurance Corporation, and Lloyd’s underwriters to be very specific.

In an August 2025 action, Wayfarer went after the insurance companies claiming they “denied coverage, breaching their duties, refusing to honor of their duties to the Insureds.” The suit, which followed a July 21, 2025 filing against Wayfarer by Harco National Insurance Company, added: “Therefore, the Insurers are liable for breach of contract and tortious bad faith, and are liable to their Insureds for compensatory, consequential, and punitive damages.”

Regardless how this plays into or does not play into Lively seeking a portion of her attorneys’ fees, on June 25  QBE, New York Marine and General Insurance Co. filed documents to see Baldoni and Wayfarer’s claims tossed out. As that motion was moving through the LA Superior Court docket of Judge James Montgomery, the Wayfarer team have gone on the offense. They put forth a motion of their own to get the insurers to fork over some dough — or at least give an compelling explanation why they decided not too in the first place.

“What is not clear is why the insurers chose to run for cover, rather than coverage,” the Wayfarer filing asks with a somewhat successful attempt at a memorable turn of phrase.

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Maybe we can start a GoFundMe page for both sides’ legal expenses if they promise to just shut up and go away forever.

I would let all memories of my family disappear to never hear about these people again.