Amber Heard formally appeals Johnny Depp trial verdict
Heard's appeal arrives just under a month after Depp also appealed the verdict, calling the $2 million awarded to Heard "erroneous"
Aux News Johnny Depp
Amber Heard has formally appealed the verdict in her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s long-running Virginia defamation suit against her. Heard’s filing arrives just under a month after Depp—despite his win in court—also appealed the verdict, calling the $2 million awarded to Heard “erroneous.”
Heard’s counter appeal, filed formally November 23 by her lawyers Jay Ward Brown and David L. Axelrod, also implicates erroneous actions from the courts. The case ended in a verdict nearly entirely in Depp’s favor on June 1— Heard’s appeal seeks to either reverse the $10-million-plus verdict against her or have it tossed out for a new trial.
“The trial court erroneously refused to dismiss this action on the ground of forum non conveniens, based on its mistaken conclusion that Depp’s claims arose in Virginia because the Washington Post’s servers are located here,” Brown and Axelrod share in Heard’s latest appeal, obtained by Deadline. “The trial court also erred in overruling Heard’s demurrer, in which she argued that the challenged statements are non-actionable expressions of opinion and are not reasonably capable of conveying the alleged defamatory implication.”
Depp’s original lawsuit hinged on a 2018 Washington Post article under Heard’s byline, where the actor identified herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Although Heard never mentioned Depp’s name in the piece, Depp sued her for nearly $50 million in March 2019, alleging that the op-ed “devastated” his career.
Heard’s appeal also cites Depp’s U.K. libel lawsuit against The Sun, which Depp brought in 2018 after the British tabloid called him a “wife beater.” Depp ultimately lost the suit after a judge found that The Sun proved their statement to be “substantially true.” The U.K. court ultimately found that 12 out of 14 alleged instances of Depp’s domestic abuse to have occurred.
“This case also should never have gone to trial because another court had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions,” Heard’s 68-page appeal notes of the case. “After Depp filed this case, the United Kingdom High Court of Justice ruled in a separate defamation action brought by Depp that Heard’s abuse allegations were true.”
Heard’s team further argues that the verdict, “if allowed to stand, undoubtedly will have a chilling effect on other women who wish to speak about abuse involving powerful men.”
Depp’s own appeal, filed by his layers Ben Chew and Camille Vasquez in early November, argues that the courts “erred in denying Mr. Depp’s Motion for Summary Judgment and Motion to Strike because Ms. Heard failed to present evidence to establish one of the required elements of defamation. Specifically, Ms. Heard failed to present evidence that Mr. Waldman acted with actual malice when he made the April 27 Statement.”
After the appeals are heard in Virginia, judges will now decide which argument stands. If it comes to it, Heard and Depp are respectively able to bring the matter before the Supreme Court, which would usher in a trial that could span years.
19 Comments
All I seem to have learned from several of these cases is that the amount of money you have to pay your legal team is the biggest determinant of success as opposed to anything else.
I’ve learned that these trials become proxy battles for weird, terminally-online, and/or entirely deranged nerds who need (but do not know how to ask for) a hug.
Sounds like you need a hug.
And I’ve learned that the real abuse allegations were the friends we made along the way.
It’s weird how no one seemed to grok that the meme-ification of a domestic violence trial doesn’t really reflect well on anyone, no matter what you think “really happened.”
Yep.The whole thing was a #teamnoone for me.
Agreed. A ton of weird nerds made Amber out to be a victim.
This makes it seem like Johnny only won due to money and not on the merits of the case. Yet from the videos of the trial the outcome was just. I think this sadly might highlight that you need to be wealthy in order to have ANY chance of holding anyone accountable.
which would usher in a trial that could span years. I’m torn between wanting her to get a win over this bloated-ass clown and not wanting to hear about this story every again. Twitter (and reddit, and EVERY OTHER comment section) was absolutely unbearable while that trial was going on, not that it’s any good right now mind you…
Big same. I also want to see Depp taken down a peg or 12 but every bit of discourse around that trial was so awful and you just couldn’t avoid it if you were online at all. Or sometimes even offline! I went to a local bar near my place back during the trial and as a joke they had two tip jars set out labeled Johnny and Amber.
Did you want to see Amber taken down a peg too?
She is not a victim so why do you want her to win? Both her and Johnny sound like awful abusive people. There are no real victims here, just two dumb rich assholes
However this goes I hope it isn’t televised (or there’s no videos, whatever). I never watched any of them but from what I understand they led to Heard getting roasted in the court of public opinion long before any actual verdict.
The part that I found the most horrifying about it being televised was A) Heard didn’t want that, and the judge overruled her, and B) part of Heard’s testimony was about her alleged sexual assault and rape at the hands of Depp. Nobody’s assault/rape testimony should be broadcast without their consent – but especially not when they’re the one being sued by their alleged rapist for defamation, and are hence given little choice about testifying to this in the first place.Entirely predictably, everyone then used screengrabs, quotes, and footage from her SA/rape testimony to harass and mock her further, because it’s hilarious when women ugly cry on the stand as they describe their husband assaulting them! Thank god the judge was here to let that happen.
Right. Amber is the victim here. Uh huh.
Nah, it’s a good thing they did that because it exposed this abuser and liar for what she is and now everything about the case was available publicly so that people who clearly didn’t watch the trial stand out from how out of touch they are with their views on this.
You know that as much as you whine and show your support for Depp, he is never, ever going to put his penis inside you.
Now you guys care about the public deciding guilt before any verdict?Keven Spacey says fuck right on off.
FFS what is wrong with this site. Heard made the first appeal, then Depp had to counter appeal, or his evidence wouldn’t be admitted, just like the UK case. That’s why the tabloid Sun won that case. This is a whole other appeal she’s starting, and it focuses on the Judge mainly. She has exhausted every other angle. She knows she won’t win if Depp can enter his evidence because, well it proves she started all this when her lawyer told her she’d get a bigger divorce settlement, that the only violence was from her, and she’s been a victim narcissist right from the start. people who can’t see this are either too dumb to follow the facts, are extremely gullible, or are narcissists themselves.