The Virginia jury has been contacted by Amber Heard’s legal team in an effort to get the June judgement in Johnny Depp’s favour overturned, the lawsuit dismissed, or a new trial ordered.
The 36-year-old Aquaman actress’s legal team said in a protracted court file on Friday (June 1) that the decision had a number of flaws, including insufficient reasoning, an unsuitable jury, and disproportionately awarded damages.
In a split decision last month, the seven-member jury from the Fairfax court returned a judgement that favoured the 59-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean actor.
The jury determined that, despite not name him, Heard had defamed him in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post in 2018 in which she claimed that she was a victim of domestic abuse.
The actress from Danish Girl was sentenced to pay her ex-husband $10.4 million in compensation and punitive damages as a result of the ruling. She received $2 million in punitive damages in return as a result of one of Depp’s attorneys being found accountable for slander.
Elaine Bredehoft, Heard’s attorney, claimed in court records that the case was founded on flawed legal reasoning and that Depp’s claims “proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms. Heard’s statements were actually false”
Bredehoft further asserted that although Depp’s legal team had previously stated that the widely reported case will centre on the time after the op-ed was published, it actually encompassed incidents and utterances from earlier in 2016.
Another section looks at the actor’s anonymity in Heard’s op-ed, which was a common defence during the defamation trial.
Bredehoft continued by saying that Depp isn’t entitled to compensation for any actions taken prior to the op-ed while also pointing out that
“the verdicts on the complaint and counterclaim are inconsistent and therefore should be set aside,” and that Depp “did not present evidence of actual malice”.
Bredehoft concludes by stating: “Ms. Heard respectfully requests this Court to set aside the jury verdict in favor of Mr. Depp and against Ms. Heard in its entirety, dismiss the Complaint, or in the alternative, order a new trial.
“Ms. Heard further requests this Court to investigate potential improper juror service and take appropriate action warranted by the results of the investigation,” she added.
The appeal was anticipated, Ben Chew, the head of the Fantastic Beasts legal team, told Courthouse News, adding: “just longer, no more substantive”.
The conflict between the former celebrity couple grew significantly larger during the six-week trial, which was much more than a judicial action.
Instead, the case generated a frenetic amount of media coverage and some believed it to be the demise of the MeToo movement.
