Justin Baldoni has asked a federal judge to dismiss or sharply reduce the $7.5 million in attorney’s fees that Blake Lively is seeking, arguing the number is inflated. In a filing submitted Monday in the Southern District of New York, Baldoni’s legal team said the roughly 7,000 hours Lively’s attorneys claim to have logged on the case is excessive and lacks supporting evidence.
The fee fight is the latest chapter in a legal saga that began in December 2024, when Lively filed a civil rights complaint against Baldoni, her co-star in It Ends With Us. The two sides later filed dueling lawsuits, with Baldoni accusing Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and the couple’s publicist of extortion and defamation.
Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, agreed to settle the underlying dispute with Lively back in May. But the settlement did not resolve every issue between the two camps, and lawyers on both sides have continued fighting in court over legal costs in the months since.
Court filings show Lively’s team argues the fee request reflects the scale and complexity of the case, which drew national attention throughout 2025. Baldoni’s filing counters that the hours billed do not match the actual work product filed with the court, and asks the judge to order a more detailed accounting before approving any payment.
Neither Lively nor Baldoni has commented publicly on the latest filing. Baldoni said earlier this year that he and his team were “healing” from the dispute, a rare public remark since the settlement. The case remains active in New York federal court, with a ruling on the fee request expected in the coming weeks.
For a story that started as a workplace dispute on a film set, the fight over legal bills has now stretched on nearly as long as the original lawsuit itself, and shows no sign of a quick resolution. Both sides have until the end of the month to file any further responses before the judge rules on the matter.
