LOS ANGELES — In what could prove to be the final court ruling in the long-running legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni over “It Ends With Us,” a federal judge on Wednesday awarded Lively about $407,000 in attorneys’ fees and court costs stemming from a defamation claim in Baldoni’s dismissed lawsuit against her.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman awarded Lively $363,000 in attorneys’ fees and another $44,000 in court costs for defending against Baldoni’s defamation claim. Lively had sought $7.5 million in attorneys’ fees and another $540,000 in costs.

The ruling follows Liman’s decision in June that Lively was entitled to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees under California Civil Code Section 47.1, a law designed to protect people who report sexual misconduct from retaliatory defamation claims. At the time, the amount Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, would have to pay remained undetermined.

In Wednesday’s ruling, Liman found that while the billing rates charged by Lively’s attorneys were “not unreasonable” given the high stakes and complexity of the case, she was entitled to reimbursement only for work tied to defending against the defamation claim. He also found the number of hours for which she sought reimbursement was unreasonable.

The combined award amounts to about 5% of the more than $8 million in fees and costs Lively had requested.

Despite the reduced award, Lively’s attorneys, Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb, called the decision “historic,” pointing to what they described as the first-ever award of fees and costs under the California law.

“As we have said from day one, Blake Lively’s case was never about money — it was about accountability,” they said in a statement. “This result demonstrates that the legal system is not as easily manipulated as social media, and still functions as a force for accountability.”

A representative for Baldoni did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The legal battle began after Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024 alleging that Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios had orchestrated an online smear campaign against her in retaliation for complaints she made about sexual harassment during the production of “It Ends With Us,” which Baldoni directed and co-starred in.

Baldoni denied wrongdoing and accused Lively of concocting false allegations as part of an effort to wrest creative control of the film. He and Wayfarer subsequently filed a $400-million lawsuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and publicist Leslie Sloane, accusing them of defamation and other wrongdoing.

Liman dismissed Baldoni’s lawsuit, finding that his claims against Lively, Reynolds and others were legally insufficient. He also dismissed Baldoni’s separate $250-million defamation suit against the New York Times, finding that the newspaper’s coverage was protected as a fair report of legal proceedings.

In April, Liman also dismissed 10 of the 13 claims in Lively’s lawsuit, including her sexual harassment and defamation claims, while allowing retaliation-related claims to proceed. Lively’s attorneys said at the time that the harassment claims were dismissed largely because the court found she was an independent contractor rather than an employee, not because the court found that the alleged conduct did not occur.

Lively and Baldoni settled their remaining claims against each other in May without either side receiving financial compensation, avoiding what had been expected to be a closely watched federal trial in Manhattan. The settlement preserved Lively’s effort to recover attorneys’ fees under Section 47.1.

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