It is not ending without more of a fight!
As we previously reported, a judge ruled that Justin Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, must cover Blake Lively‘s legal fees due to a law in California meant to protect sexual harassment victims from retaliatory defamation claims after the former It Ends With Us co-stars settled their legal battle. She demanded $7,495,526.87 in attorneys’ fees and $539,514.01 in litigation costs and expenses, which is a whopping total of $8,035,040.88! And that is only the start! She wants him to cover “any additional attorneys’ fees” incurred in fighting the fee request, too! Wild!
Related: Blake & Ryan ‘Furious’ Over Justin’s Statement — Why They Won’t Fight Back!
Now, Blake’s lawyers better break out the calculator and start figuring out how much that’ll cost because Justin is challenging the request! According to court documents obtained by TMZ and other outlets, the director, along with his team at Wayfarer, is asking the judge to deny or reduce Blake’s request for more than $8 million in legal fees! They argue that what she wants is “anything but a typical fee motion,” saying her attorneys charged “excessive” hourly rates and more. The filing states:
“Lively’s fee request is so over-inclusive that it sweeps in fees for researching her own liability for perjury arising from her California CRD claim and her Rule 11 motion for which the Court has already denied fees!”
People reported that the documents further argue the Gossip Girl alum had multiple attorneys at the hearings, excessive internal conferencing, and 7,070.20 hours billed by 82 timekeepers — which they claim is 20 times over what courts have approved in other high-profile defamation cases:
“The most cursory review of Lively’s submission shows multiple lawyers at the same hearings, numerous charges for lawyers conferencing, conferring, or strategizing with one another, and to put it mildly, extremely excessive research and online investigation.”
In comparison, The New York Times only asked for $181,622.70 in attorneys’ fees in a “motion to dismiss precisely the same defamation claim” — not over $8 million. Justin’s team now want the judge to either deny the motion entirely or to significantly reduce any fees awarded to Blake using that benchmark number from the publication:
“Lively fails to meet her burden to present credible evidence showing that the fees and costs she seeks to recover are reasonable and, accordingly, her fee motion should be denied in its entirety. At minimum, the Court should substantially reduce the request, using as a benchmark the $181,622.70 the Times sought after securing dismissal of Count II on its separate motion to dismiss – the same outcome Lively achieved.”
Blake hasn’t officially reacted to Justin’s challenge. However, a source close to the actress told TMZ on Monday that their argument that she can only recover fees on the “defamation claim” goes against the statutory language, which says “successful defense of the litigation,” not the “claim.” The insider also said they don’t dispute that the judge consolidated their cases.
As for the case involving The New York Times, a source for Blake noted to People that the two situations are completely different, mainly that there was no lengthy discovery process with the publication. They claimed the judge in the case granted the Times’ request for a stay in discovery before dismissing the case.
The judge ultimately gets the final say here, so we’ll see who he sides with! What do YOU think will happen, Perezcious readers? Will Blake get what she wants? Let us know your predictions in the comments (below).
[Image via CBS Mornings/Soul Bloom w/Rainn Wilson/YouTube]