Home NEWS ENTERTAINMENT Amber Heard’s Attorneys Ask for Johnny Depp Defamation Case Verdict to Be Tossed

Amber Heard’s Attorneys Ask for Johnny Depp Defamation Case Verdict to Be Tossed

Amber Heard took part in a highly-publicized defamation court case between herself and ex-husband Johnny Depp last month

Actor Amber Heard stands with her attorney attorney Elaine Bredehoft before closing arguments in the Depp v. Heard trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 27, 2022. – Actor Johnny Depp is suing ex-wife Amber Heard for libel after she wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in 2018 referring to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. (Photo by Steve Helber / POOL / AFP) (Photo by STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Amber Heard’s attorneys are seeking to appeal or throw out last month’s verdict in the defamation court battle between the actress and her ex-husband Johnny Depp.

In a 43-page filing sent to a Virginia court on Friday, the Aquaman actress’ team argued that the verdict was not supported by sufficient evidence.

In one claim, Heard’s team argues that it was incorrect for Depp, 59, to claim that he lost his role in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series because of a Washington Post op-ed, where Heard wrote that she was abused but did not name the abuser.

Heard’s team argued that Depp “proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms. Heard’s statements were actually false.”

The Aquaman star’s team also claimed that one of the jurors who served during the trial was not properly vetted. The person summoned to court had a birth date of 1945 but Heard’s team claims that the person who served was much younger.

The juror, identified in the filing as Juror 15, “was clearly born later than 1945. Publicly available information demonstrates that he appears to have been born in 1970,” the motion states.

US actress Amber Heard waits before the jury said that they believe she defamed ex-husband Johnny Depp, while announcing split verdicts in favor of both her ex-husband Johnny Depp and Heard on their claim and counter-claim in the Depp v. Heard civil defamation trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 1, 2022. – A US jury on Wednesday found Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamed each other, but sided far more strongly with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star following an intense libel trial involving bitterly contested allegations of sexual violence and domestic abuse. (Photo by EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Last month, Depp won all three defamation claims in his case against Heard, 36, in response to her 2018 op-ed about coming forward as a survivor of domestic abuse.

The jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages but Heard will only have to pay $10.35 million due to a Virginia law capping punitive damages (the judge reduced the amount).

Additionally, Heard was awarded $2 million in damages for her counterclaims against Depp. The actress’ attorney had previously said that Heard will “absolutely” appeal the verdict against her.

Heard previously called the verdict a “setback” for women and told Today’s Savannah Guthrie that she’s “scared” it will mean more “silencing” for survivors looking to come forward. (Depp, meanwhile, has maintained that he never laid a hand on Heard, and has accused her of physically harming him.)

In response to the filing by Heard’s team, Ben Chew, who leads Depp’s legal team, told Courthouse News that the appeal is “what we expected, just longer, no more substantive”.

[via]

Load More By Owusu Barbara
Load More In ENTERTAINMENT
Comments are closed.

Check Also

Khloe Kardashian ‘humiliated’ as Kim Kardashian, Tristan Thompson grow ‘close’

Khloe Kardashian reportedly feels ‘humiliated’ after her sister Kim Kardashian decided to …