Amber Heard Asks Court to Dismiss Johnny Depp Defamation Verdict Against Her

Amber Heard lost her defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp a little over a month ago. Now, Johnny’s lawyers have asked the court in Fairfax to set aside the verdict or order a new trial. They say there is ‘no evidence’ to support the $10 million in damages Amber was ordered to pay.

Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for defamation after she called him a domestic abuser in a Washington Post article. Amber Heard then countersued, claiming that Johnny Depp had called her a liar. The trial lasted six weeks and found Amber guilty of defamation on all three counts while Johnny Depp was only found guilty on one count, but was exonerated on two other counts.

Amber’s legal team says that Johnny’s team only went after her because she implied something in an article she wrote, and they left out the fact that what she said wasn’t actually false. They also argue again that Amber didn’t know the headline of her article would say what it did.

“Ms Heard never even became aware of the headline until Mr. Depp filed the lawsuit against her,” the brief read.

The motion also questioned the amount of money that Amber was awarded in the case. The judge ordered her to pay $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the judge reduced the latter to the statutory maximum of $350,000. On the other hand, Johnny was ordered to pay Amber $2 million overall.

Johnny’s legal team dismissed the appeal. In an email, his lawyer Ben Chew called it “what we expected, just longer, no more substantive.”

Johnny and Amber met while they were filming The Rum Diaries in 2010. They married in 2015 but separated the following year. Their divorce was finalised in 2017. Johnny had earlier lost a libel case in the UK when he sued a publication for calling him a ‘wife-beater’. The court had found the allegations substantially true.

Micajah

Covering superheroes, anything dark, horror, and more! Lead writer for Fan Fest