Actor, director and producer Justin Baldoni is not convinced that Blake Lively has shown evidence to justify her $8 million (R132,011,680) claim in legal fees against him.
After they reached a settlement in a case brought on by Lively against Baldoni and Wayfarer, his production company for the movie It End With Us, the parties are now ironing out the last details that could see the end of the two-year legal fight between them.
The lawsuit was for sexual harassment after Lively accused Baldoni and his team of marshaling a plan to undermine her reputation in retaliation for speaking up about misconduct on the set of the movie.
According to US Weekly, a court filing made through his lawyers says that ‘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’.
Baldoni’s lawyers Ellyn S. Garofalo and Bryan Freedman say the claim is beyond reasonable, calling it ‘anything but a typical fee motion’.
They asked for the claim to be denied outright or substantially reduced, reports People Magazine.
After a two-year silence whille the legal battle was unfolding, Baldoni and his wife Emily recently issued a video statement to their supporters, thanking them and telling them how the case has affected the Baldoni family.
The couple says while they were silent to avoid adding to the noise around the trial, the time was right to express their thought and feeling about the past two year, saying that they are now are in a space of healing as a family.