Justin Baldoni Fights Blake Lively's $8 Million Fee Bid After 17-Month Settlement

Q: Why is the creator of a victim protection law now publicly criticizing Blake Lively’s use of it?

She is criticizing it because she believes Blake Lively’s team is stretching a survivor-protection law beyond what it was meant to do. Victoria Burke, identified in the additional reporting as the architect of California Civil Code Section 47.1, says the statute was designed to shield people who report sexual harassment or retaliation from being silenced by retaliatory defamation suits. In her view, Lively’s current push for more than $8 million in fees after a settlement and procedural dismissals goes beyond that purpose. Burke has said publicly that she does not think attorney fees should be granted in this matter, arguing that the case did not end with a full factual finding by a judge or jury on the underlying harassment allegations. She has also said she was puzzled that the fight over fees and damages continued after the parties settled in May 2026, suggesting those issues should have been resolved then. Her criticism is also personal and political. Burke says Lively’s camp discussed expanding versions of the law more broadly but then sidelined her from those efforts. She has also objected to reported changes in proposed bill language that she says would benefit lawyers, not just survivors. In short, Burke’s complaint is that a law meant to protect victims from retaliatory lawsuits is, in this case, being used as a high-profile legal and public-relations weapon rather than in the narrow survivor-protection role she intended.

3 articles · Updated · Us Weekly · Jul 20

$8,035,040.88 in legal fees sought by Blake Lively is being challenged by Justin Baldoni, whose lawyers asked the court on July 13 to deny her motion in full.
Baldoni's attorneys argued Lively failed to provide credible evidence that the fees and costs were reasonable, making the post-settlement request unsupported.
The filing contrasted Lively's demand with the New York Times' $181,622.70 fee request tied to dismissal of the same defamation claim Baldoni had brought.
The dispute follows a 17-month legal fight sparked by Lively's December 2024 sexual-harassment complaint; Baldoni denied the allegations, and his countersuit was thrown out in June 2025.
The latest fee battle comes about a month after the pair settled in May, just weeks before their scheduled trial.