Judge Orders Justin Baldoni to Pay Blake Lively's Legal Fees; Denies Additional Damages

Judge Lewis Liman of the Southern District of New York issued the final ruling Friday in the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, ordering Baldoni's production company Wayfarer Studios to cover Lively's attorneys' fees and costs under California Civil Code Section 47.1, a 2024 law designed to protect sexual harassment accusers from retaliatory defamation suits. The court found that Lively acted without malice when she made her sexual misconduct complaint, and that Baldoni's side provided insufficient evidence to meet its burden of proving otherwise. However, Liman denied Lively's motion for treble and punitive damages, ruling that such remedies cannot be pursued through a Rule 54(d) post-judgment motion under federal procedural rules, as doing so would bypass formal pleading, discovery, and potential Seventh Amendment jury trial rights. The ruling follows a May 2026 settlement in which both parties resolved their remaining claims with no money changing hands, just two weeks before a high-profile trial was set to begin in New York. The exact amount of legal fees Lively will receive has yet to be determined, with her attorneys — prominent litigators Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson — set to submit a detailed billing breakdown; given the length and complexity of the litigation, the figure could be substantial. Both sides claimed partial victory: Lively's team called her the 'prevailing defendant' under Section 47.1, while Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman emphasized that 10 of her 13 original claims were dismissed and she received no monetary settlement.