Kim Kardashian isn’t letting a man she accidentally misidentified walk away without paying her legal bills, and her lawyers are making it crystal clear that sympathy won’t fly in court.
Ivan Cantu sued the billionaire after she posted his photo, thinking he was a death row inmate, back in 2024. Cantu said he was blindsided when his face went out to 350 million people on social media.
But the case was dismissed last November when a judge ruled that he couldn’t prove any actual damage had occurred.
Now that she’s won, she’s coming for $128,150 in attorney fees plus another grand in costs, and Cantu’s team is begging the court to let him off the hook by claiming financial hardship.
Cantu’s lawyers are basically saying that because Kim’s got money for days, she shouldn’t need his cash.
His attorney, Greg Sobo, told the Daily Mail that the whole situation destroyed Cantu’s privacy and caused him lasting trauma.
But Kim’s legal team isn’t having any of it.
According to court documents reviewed by the Daily Mail, her lawyers fired back, saying Cantu’s trying to use “appeals for sympathy” to dodge California law, which says the losing party has to pay up.
The reality star’s team made their position crystal clear: Cantu “thought he could force a payout based on her celebrity and wealth,” but that strategy backfired.
They’re arguing that he hasn’t presented a single legitimate reason for waiving the fees, and his claims about being broke don’t hold up under state law.
Kardashian’s attorneys described his entire lawsuit as “clearly meritless” from the jump, meaning they never thought he had a real case to begin with.
The image was corrected almost immediately once the mistake was caught, and Kim’s team says it was all part of her criminal justice reform work anyway.
The judge is expected to decide soon whether Cantu must cover her legal costs or whether his financial struggles will convince the court otherwise.
Kim’s been known to fight hard in legal battles, and this case proves she’s not about to let this one slide.