A federal judge has ordered Wayfarer Studios to pay Blake Lively’s attorneys fees after Justin Baldoni’s defamation suit against her failed, bringing the last open issue in the dispute to a close. Judge Lewis Liman also denied Lively’s bid for triple damages and punitive damages, narrowing what she can recover even as she won the right to collect her defense costs.
The ruling gives fresh attention to the Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni Settlement because the case had already been largely wrapped up in May, with the co-stars settling the rest of their legal fight just two weeks before the matter was set for trial in federal court in New York. The fee fight was the final loose end, tied to Lively’s motion under the Protecting Survivors from Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Act, a 2023 California law aimed at shielding sexual abuse accusers from retaliatory defamation claims.
Liman said Lively was entitled to recover her defense costs under that law after Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios accused her of manufacturing harassment claims to take control of the 2024 film. Lively had said Baldoni sexually harassed her on set and then retaliated with an online whisper campaign after she complained. Baldoni’s defamation suit was dismissed a year ago, and the judge found that Lively’s allegations were protected by the litigation privilege.
What Lively did not get was the full package of remedies she had sought. Her motion asked for attorneys fees, triple damages and punitive damages under the California law, but Liman ruled that those extra damages are not available under federal law. That leaves the fee award intact while limiting the rest of her recovery, a split result that reflects the court’s view that she prevailed on the defense-cost issue without unlocking the broader damages she wanted.
Lively’s attorneys, Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb, said the ruling made clear that she brought her claims in good faith, that there was no evidence of malice, and that she is the prevailing defendant under Section 47.1. They also said the court is awarding her attorneys’ fees and costs and that the settlement agreement expressly preserves her right to seek the denied damages through different procedural mechanisms. The sides had agreed not to appeal Liman’s ruling on the fee motion, which means this courtroom fight is now finished even if the amount Wayfarer must pay has not been disclosed.
