Justin Baldoni‘s lawyer is speaking out following the latest development in the It Ends With Us Legal battle.
On Friday (June 12), a federal judge ruled that Blake Lively was entitled to attorneys’ fees and litigation costs in her battle against the 41-year-old actor/director.
The ruling comes after Justin and Blake, 38, reached a settlement in May, two weeks before they were set to go to trial. Blake first sued Justin for sexual harassment followed by a retaliatory public smear campaign in December 2024. Justin has denied the claims and filed a $400 million countersuit, which was later dismissed.
Following the settlement, a dispute still remained between the two over whether Blake had the right to pursue attorneys’ fees and damages related to Justin‘s counterclaim under a California anti-retaliation law.
U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman partially granted Blake‘s request, finding that she is entitled to attorneys’ fees and litigation costs, but he denied her bid for treble damages and punitive damages.
In a statement to People after the ruling, Justin‘s attorney Bryan Freedman said that Blake “was only awarded limited attorney fees for a single claim as part of a case that lasted only a matter of months, nothing more.”
“We fought and won against a coordinated effort built on allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, and a smear campaign that never happened,” the statement continued. “Ms. Lively demanded over 300 million in fees and damages, had 10 of her 13 claims dismissed, she then chose to settle and received nothing.”
Freedman went on to say that the judge’s decision to not award Blake damages was a failure for her team.
“Not withstanding that all of her sexual harassment and defamation claims were thrown out by the court, Ms. Lively then pivoted to exploit a California law that was established to protect real victims in what proved to be a fruitless mission to obtain damages. Once again, she failed,” Freedman said.
In response, Blake‘s legal team said in a statement that “Bryan Freedman and his clients resorted to a DARVO [Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender] statement that is a pack of lies.”
“Just a few weeks ago, they said Blake Lively’s claims ‘deserved to be heard,’” the statement continued. “Now it seems Justin Baldoni thinks women who bring claims of sexual harassment and retaliation in good faith, without malice, should be sued into oblivion.”
“Thankfully, there’s a law against that, and the Court applied it today. People who do nothing wrong don’t have to pay millions of dollars, which is where this is headed now,” the statement concluded.
In a recent interview, Blake‘s husband Ryan Reynolds shared some rare public comments about the legal battle.
The post Justin Baldoni’s Lawyer Fires Back After Blake Lively Wins Bid for Legal Fees appeared first on Just Jared – Celebrity News and Gossip | Entertainment.
