Amber Heard has finally filed for an appeal in the defamation case against ex-husband Johnny Depp.
After almost one and a half months, the lawyers representing the Aquaman actress officially filed a notice to appeal the verdict at the Virginia Court of Appeals.
The step was taken just after a week when the Judge denied Heard’s request for a new trial.
Last month, on June 1, 2022, the Virginia Court concluded the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and ruled in favor of the Pirates of the Caribbean actor.
The seven-member jury unanimously announced its verdict, stating that the actress had defamed her ex-husband through her 2018 op-ed and wrongfully accused him.
The Aquaman actress wrote in the Washington Post that she was domestically mistreated. Although she didn’t explicitly name Johnny Depp in her op-ed, it was pretty evident she was blaming him.
In response, Johnny sued her for fifty million dollars for wrongly accusing him of being a horrible husband.
Heard then countersued him for a hundred million dollars by accusing him of setting up a “dirty campaign” against her and calling her claims” A blatant lie.”
According to the verdict, Amber was supposed to pay 10 million dollars in damages to Johnny Depp.
Later in June, the legal teams of both Amber and Johnny met at the court to reach a settlement; the attorney tried to make a last-minute agreement to reduce the damages Amber owed to Johnny.
However, they couldn’t settle anything, and the Judge officially ordered the 36-year-old actress to pay the damage money – $10.35 million.
Judge Penney Azcarate also ordered the ‘Edward Scissorhands’ actor to pay $2 million in damages to ex-wife Amber Heard.
After the appeal notice had been filed, Johnny Depp’s representatives stated that they were confident the court’s decision would stand in their favor.
“The jury listened to the extensive evidence presented during the six-week trial and came to a clear and unanimous verdict that the defendant herself defamed Mr. Depp in multiple instances. We remain confident in our case and that this verdict will stand,” Depp’s spokesperson told Daily Mail.
Earlier this month, the actress’s attorneys claimed in court that the evidence used to support the jury’s finding that she had maligned Depp, 59, was insufficient.
Amber’s defense team also argued that one of the jurors was not thoroughly screened and shouldn’t have been allowed to serve on the panel.
Daily Mail wrote that her lawyers alleged two people with the same last name who lived at home in Virginia where the jury duty summons was sent in April.
“The summons was intended for a 77-year-old person, but instead, the 52-year-old showed up in court and served on the jury.” the outlet quoted.
“It is deeply troubling for an individual not summoned for jury duty nonetheless to appear for jury duty and serve on a jury, especially in a case such as this,” they argued.
“Virginia has safeguards in place to prevent these types of mixups, such as using of a seven-digit juror number, zip code, and birthdate to verify jurors’ identities.”
They further added, “Those safeguards are in place and relied upon by the parties to verify the identity of the correct juror, to ensure due process and a fair trial for all litigants.”
“When these safeguards are circumvented or not followed, as appears to be the case here, the right to a jury trial and due process is undermined and compromised.”
“Under these circumstances, a mistrial should be declared, and a new trial ordered.”
However, Judge Penney Azcarate rejected pleas from Heard’s team for additional hearings. She also stated that Amber’s lawyers could request a judicial appeal if they wanted one.
Now, on Thursday, July 21, after the appeal was filed, one of Amber’s spokespeople released a statement on her behalf,
“We believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment. We are therefore appealing the verdict.
“While we realize today’s filing will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we need to take to ensure both fairness and justice.”
Do you think Amber’s appeal against the verdict will make any difference? Let us know your thoughts.
Sources:
She is desperate, this is what happens when you believe you will always get your way and have no repercussions for what you say and what you do. Do her a favor, prevent her from eventually committing perjury yet again, because she is clearly incapable of telling the truth. She clearly has been on so many medications and taken so many drugs over the years it has completely messed with her sense of reality, if that poor baby has any chance of a normal life- she needs to be monitored because as wrapped up in make believe as Amber is, that baby can not be getting the attention and love she needs, because Amber is too wrapped up in herself and her own drama, it’s the only thing that consumes her.