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Amber Heard is interesting the Johnny Depp defamation verdict. Final month, the 36-year-old actress’ authorized staff filed an attraction to the June verdict, through which jurors determined that Depp was defamed by Heard and that she “acted with precise malice” in doing so.
In new courtroom docs obtained by ET, Heard, whose 2018 Washington Submit op-ed about being the sufferer of home violence was on the heart of Depp’s case, cites a number of causes for her attraction, beginning with the six-week trial’s Virginia location.
“As a substitute of suing Heard in California, the place each events lived and the place Depp claimed to have suffered reputational hurt, Depp sued in Virginia, an entirely inconvenient discussion board with no connection to Depp or any significant connection to his claims,” the docs learn, including that the situation was allowed primarily based on the “mistaken conclusion that Depp’s claims arose in Virginia as a result of the Washington Submit’s servers are situated right here.”
The actress claims within the docs that “the trial courtroom additionally erred in overruling Heard’s demurrer,” through which she argued that her op-ed statements “are non-actionable expressions of opinion and will not be moderately able to conveying the alleged defamatory implication.”
“That holding, if allowed to face, undoubtedly may have a chilling impact on different girls who want to discuss abuse involving highly effective males,” the docs learn.
Heard additionally argues that “this case additionally ought to by no means have gone to trial as a result of one other courtroom had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on a number of events.” That’s in reference to the 2020 U.Okay. trial, through which a courtroom dominated that The Solar was justified in its use of the phrase “spouse beater” in a 2018 article about Depp’s relationship with Heard.
As soon as the Virginia trial did get underway, the docs declare that Depp “failed as a matter of regulation to satisfy his burden to show precise malice,” as a result of “he didn’t reveal that Heard was conscious of and supposed to speak the alleged defamatory implication that he had abused her” and “he didn’t set up that Heard knew the alleged implication was false or subjectively entertained severe doubts about its reality.”
In the course of the trial, the docs allege, there have been additionally “quite a few evidentiary errors that severely prejudiced Heard.” The docs moreover declare that “the jury directions have been lacking a key requirement for establishing a defamation-by-implication declare.”
The docs then flip to Heard’s victory within the trial, through which she was awarded $2 million, as the jury discovered Depp liable after his lawyer referred to Heard’s claims as a “hoax.” Depp has filed an attraction to that call, arguing that he shouldn’t be held responsible for feedback made by his lawyer.
“The ensuing jury verdict in opposition to Heard on all of Depp’s claims can’t be reconciled with the jury verdict in opposition to Depp on Heard’s counterclaim,” the docs learn. “… Accordingly, the decision in opposition to Heard can not stand.”
Depp, in the meantime, was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, the latter of which was later decreased to $350,000 in accordance with the state’s statutory cap.
“The jury’s award to Depp of $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages (statutorily decreased to $350,000) clearly is extreme given the slim timeframe for which Depp may get better,” the docs learn.
Heard’s attraction has lengthy been anticipated, as, in July, she filed paperwork alerting the courtroom of an impending attraction.
“We imagine the courtroom made errors that prevented a simply and honest verdict in line with the First Modification,” a spokesperson for Heard instructed ET on the time. “We’re subsequently interesting the decision. Whereas we notice at this time’s submitting will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we have to take to make sure each equity and justice.”
In response to the July submitting, a spokesperson for Depp instructed ET, “The jury listened to the in depth proof offered in the course of the six-week trial and got here to a transparent and unanimous verdict that the defendant herself defamed Mr. Depp, in a number of cases. We stay assured in our case and that this verdict will stand.”
Final month, a supply instructed ET that, for the reason that trial, Heard has been dwelling in Europe along with her daughter, Oonagh.
“She seems like she will get extra privateness whereas abroad, likes it there, and is extra comfy,” the supply mentioned. “She is handled properly and might be extra below the radar and simply be along with her daughter. [She is] actually centered on being a mother and being there for her daughter. She needs to maneuver on and put together for her subsequent chapter.”
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