Amber Heard
She does not accept the verdict in the defamation trial
Amber Heard is appealing.
© Tinseltown/Shutterstock.com
Amber Heard’s lawyers are set to appeal the verdict in Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit. That emerges from a document from Friday.
US actress Amber Heard (36) demands that the verdict in the defamation trial between her and her ex-husband Johnny Depp (59) be overturned. Her legal team filed a motion with a Virginia court on Friday to retry the case. The verdict that she defamed Depp was not supported by evidence. The attorneys also allege that one juror was not properly screened and questioned whether the juror should have been called to the jury at all.
Who is “Juryman 15”?
The 43-page motion challenges the validity of the jury selection process and refers to one juror, referred to as “Juryman 15,” whose year of birth is listed in court documents as 1945. It has been argued that juror 15 “was clearly born after 1945. Publicly available information indicates that he was apparently born in 1970”.
This discrepancy raises questions as to whether juror 15 actually received a jury service subpoena and was properly screened by the court for jury participation. “It appears that his identity has not been verified,” the lawsuit says.
Slander by insinuation vs. false claims
As the “People” magazine further reports, Heard’s attorneys also argued in the filing that during the trial, Depp “solely operated a theory of defamation by insinuation, abandoning any allegation that Ms. Heard’s statements were in fact false.” For this reason too, the judgment should be rejected.
A jury found them guilty in early June
At the beginning of last month, Depp won the defamation lawsuit against Heard after around six long weeks of trial. He sued her for $50 million for an article she published in the Washington Post in 2018. In it, she claimed to be a victim of domestic violence. She did not mention her ex-husband by name. Depp nevertheless claimed the post ruined his career, damaged his reputation and cost him a lot of money.
Heard then filed a $100 million counterclaim against her ex. The couple got married in 2015. The two separated in 2016 and divorced in 2017. Both parties have repeatedly accused each other of domestic violence in the process.
The jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages, but Heard only has to pay $10.35 million under a Virginia law that limits punitive damages – the judge reduced the amount. Heard was also awarded $2 million in damages for her counterclaims against Depp.
Johnny Depp’s lawyer has already responded
Johnny Depp’s lead defense attorney, Ben Chew, responded to the new motion in an Statement to Courthouse News with the words: “What we expected, only longer, not more substantial”.