$8 million too much: Justin Baldoni wants judge to deny or reduce Blake Lively’s legal fee request
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "$8 million too much: Justin Baldoni wants judge to deny or reduce Blake Lively’s legal fee request")
Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Photograph: (Instagram)
In June, Blake Lively revealed that she wants $8 million as a legal fee from Justin Baldoni. This was the money that she incurred during her much-publicised legal case with her It Ends with Us co-star.
Days after Blake Lively knocked on the doors of the court against Justin Baldoni for legal fees, the It Ends With Us actor has reportedly asked the judge to deny or "substantially reduce" the actress's demand for the whopping $8 million legal fee request.
On June 30, the Gossip Girl star asked a judge for $8,035,040.88 in attorneys' fees and litigation costs after the dismissal of his defamation lawsuit against the actress.
Justin Baldoni request to Judge to deny or ‘substantially reduce’
In a new update, reported by PEOPLE, Baldoni has filed a new request alongside Wayfarer Studios over the costs that Lively is demanding.
In a filing submitted on Monday, July 13, they have described the actresses' request as “anything but a typical fee motion,” arguing that her attorneys charged “excessive” hourly rates.
They have asked the court to either deny or “substantially reduce” the fees.
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In the recent filing, they have claimed that Blake's team of attorneys was overstaffed, saying there were, ‘’multiple attorneys at hearings, excessive internal conferencing, and 7,070.20 billable hours billed by 82 timekeepers, which, according to the filing, is about 20 times what courts have previously approved in comparable high-profile defamation cases,'' as reported by PEOPLE.
In the recent filing, Baldoni referenced a similar fee request from The New York Times, but noted that the Times only sought $181,622.70 in attorneys’ fees, which, in comparison to Lively’s, is a much smaller amount.
Apart from the attorney's fees, the actress has also put up the demand of “$539,514.01 in costs and expenses,”
“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,” the filing reads.
“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,” they said.
This court filing has come after Baldoni and his wife Emily broke the silence on his legal battle, which ended in May. Appearing in a video with his wife Emily, the actor-director talked about the emotional toll, saying that, "we are healing".
In the clip, Justin said, "It just didn't feel like the right time, and we were talking about it and feeling into it and praying about it, and...and this feels like the moment. So here we are." Emily expressed gratitude for all that went on in the past year. She said, "But what does feel important is that we can genuinely say that we are sitting here today feeling immense gratitude for so many things and so many people and so many things that have happened to us.
