New trial against Johnny Depp?
Amber Heard is taking action against the verdict
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp were married from 2015 to 2017.
© BAKOUNINE/Shutterstock.com
The mudslinging continues: Amber Heard has officially appealed the verdict in Johnny Depp’s defamation trial.
Johnny Depp (59) appealed part of the verdict in the defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard (36) a few weeks ago. Now the actress has also submitted an application as reported by “Deadline”.. The actress is therefore aiming for a new process.
Legal team makes allegations
The documents, reportedly filed by her attorneys on November 23, said: “The court also erred in dismissing Heard’s objection, in which she argued that the contested statements are unenforceable expressions of opinion and not contained in able to convey the alleged defamatory implication.” Lawyers also said the decision, if upheld, “will undoubtedly have a deterrent effect on other women who want to speak out about abuse by powerful men.”
Judge Penney Azcarate is accused of improperly instructing the jury in the trial, which ended almost entirely in Depp’s favor in June, but also of “eliminating highly relevant evidence and admitting irrelevant and prejudicial evidence.” Her legal team also argued that the trial, heard in Virginia, should have taken place in California, where the former couple lived together. According to the report, the actress wants to use the appeal to have the verdict against her overturned or thrown out in favor of a completely new trial.
“This case should also never have gone to court because another court had already concluded that Depp had abused Heard on multiple occasions,” the brief said. In another defamation lawsuit, Johnny Depp sued the tabloid The Sun in the UK, which called him a “wife beater”. But the lawsuit was dismissed because the allegation was “essentially true,” it said at the time. “After Depp brought this case, the UK Supreme Court ruled in a separate defamation lawsuit brought by Depp that Heard’s allegations of abuse were true,” the 36-year-old’s legal team said.
Johnny Depp has also appealed
Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for $50 million in March 2019 over an opinion piece in the Washington Post that appeared in late 2018. In the article, the actress shares her experiences as a survivor of domestic violence. Although Depp’s name did not appear in it, her ex-husband explained that the article destroyed his career.
Heard subsequently filed a $100 million counterclaim against her ex. On June 1, a jury in Fairfax County, Virginia found that Depp was defamed. He was awarded more than $10 million in damages and she was awarded $2 million in a counterclaim.
According to US media reports, Depp has already appealed part of the verdict. In documents filed in Virginia, attorneys say the decision requiring Depp to pay Heard $2 million was “flawed.” Depp cannot be held legally liable for statements made by his lawyer simply because he was hired by the actor. The former lawyer Depps slandered the actress, the jury found in the trial. That verdict should be overturned, but the other upheld in Depp’s favour, the documents say.
It was announced in July that Amber Heard would like to appeal the verdict after failing to have it overturned.