Harvey Weinstein rushed to hospital. NY businesses complaining about MSG shut down during busy World Cup Weekend. A couple climbed the Empire State Building and got arrested for it.
I finally got through Blake’s fee motion, and I feel like a lot of people are going to see “$8 million in attorneys’ fees” and immediately think, that’s ridiculous.
But after actually reading the filing… I kind of understand why they’re asking for that amount.
One thing this motion keeps coming back to is that this wasn’t just a normal lawsuit where everyone filed a couple motions and waited for trial.
According to Blake’s lawyers, the Wayfarer defendants turned this into an all-out war. They argue the $400 million lawsuit wasn’t really about winning, it was about retaliating against Blake after she reported alleged harassment, draining her financially, dominating the media narrative, and making the cost of speaking up as painful as possible.
The filing also reminds the court that discovery wasn’t exactly smooth. Blake’s team says they had to file more than 15 discovery motions, repeatedly ask the court to intervene over withheld documents, privilege disputes, and other discovery fights. If you’ve been following the docket, you know this case has generated hundreds of filings.
The biggest legal issue isn’t actually the dollar amount, it’s what Blake is entitled to recover.
Her lawyers argue that California’s new Section 47.1 doesn’t say she only gets reimbursed for defending one specific defamation claim. They say the statute covers successfully defending the litigation, and because everything in this case became intertwined; the motion to dismiss, Rule 11 sanctions, discovery battles, and the 47.1 motion itself, they shouldn’t have to separate every single billing entry.
The motion also pushes back on what they expect critics will say next: that her lawyers charged too much.
Their response is basically: Wayfarer knew exactly who Blake hired. They knew they were filing a $400 million lawsuit in federal court against someone represented by two major firms. You don’t get to litigate like that for over a year and then act shocked that experienced trial lawyers are expensive.
One thing I hadn’t really thought about until reading this filing is that a case doesn’t have to go to trial to become incredibly expensive. Discovery was already happening while the motions to dismiss were being fought. Depositions, document production, privilege disputes, motions to compel… all of that costs money whether the case ultimately survives or not.
Also worth pointing out because I’ve already seen people confuse this online:
This isn’t Blake asking for damages. She’s asking to recover the attorneys’ fees and litigation costs she says she incurred defending herself after Judge Liman ruled she qualified for protection under California Civil Code 47.1.