Blake Lively won a partial victory on Friday, as a judge ordered Wayfarer Studios to pay her attorneys fees for having to defend against Justin Baldoni‘s failed defamation suit.
The judge, Lewis Liman, ruled that Lively was entitled to recover her defense costs under a 2023 California law meant to protect sexual abuse accusers from retaliatory defamation suits.
Liman, however, denied Lively’s motion for triple damages and punitive damages, finding that those remedies are not available under federal law.
The “It Ends With Us” co-stars had previously settled all other disputes in their protracted and costly legal war, just two weeks before the case was due to go to trial in federal court in New York. The only loose end was Lively’s fee motion under the Protecting Survivors from Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Act.
Lively had accused Baldoni, who also directed the 2024 film, of sexually harassing her on set and of retaliating against her for complaining about it with an online whisper campaign meant to tarnish her reputation.
Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios allies fired back with a defamation suit, accusing Lively of manufacturing false claims of harassment in order to seize control of the film. Baldoni’s lawsuit was dismissed a year ago, as the judge found that Lively’s allegations were protected under the litigation privilege.
Lively then filed a motion for attorneys fees, triple damages, and punitive damages under the California law. That motion was fully briefed and awaiting a ruling when the case settled in May, with Lively receiving nothing for her claims.
As part of the settlement, both sides agreed to abide by Liman’s ruling on the fee motion and not to appeal.
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