With the It Ends with Us lawsuit between costars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settled weeks before the trial, legal experts believe that the case ended at a staggering cost.
As reported by PEOPLE, a New York-based attorney named Richard Schoenstein, who has no ties to the recently ended lawsuit, weighed the matter, noting that the combined legal expense is in the multiple millions.
According to Schoenstein, the case was filed with around 1,500 docket entries and included high-priced firms billing well over $1,000 an hour with multiple lawyers on both sides.
While shedding light on the reason why Lively and Baldoni decided to settle legal battle outside of court, the New York-based attorney shared that he believes the case wasn't worth it at this point for either of them.
“The case had been reduced — his counterclaims were dismissed, and her claims were substantially narrowed,” said Schoenstein, noting that there wasn't enough to gain from going to trial given the cost, which would have been extremely high, in the millions.
In the end, he said that the money wasn’t the only issue in the now cancelled trial, but their public image being tarnished in the aftermath was a big risk.
Moreover, trial would exposing private details and documents could drag others in as well.
In short, the attorney believed that no matter who won, both Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni would have faced bad press, messy evidence, and reputation damage.
