It has been a month since Amber Heard along with her team of lawyers appealed the sentence against her in the defamation trial initiated by her former partner, Johnny Depp. The 36-year-old actress appealed the June verdict, in which jurors decided Heard had defamed Depp and that she “acted with real malice” in doing so.
The trial began after Amber Heard published a column in the newspaper The Washington Postt, in 2018, where pleaded victim of domestic violence by the actorthen her husband, where he gives appalling details.
Among the reasons for their appeal, Heard’s lawyers cite, among other things, the place of the trial which lasted six weeks, which took place in the state of Virginia and not in California, where both lived.
The reasons for the appeal
“Rather than sue Heard in California, where both parties lived and where Johnny Depp claimed he suffered reputational damage, Depp sued in Virginia, a totally uncomfortable forum with no connection to Depp nor any significant connection to their claims,” the documents read.
The explanation from Depp’s judicial representation is because the servers of The Washington Post they are in that state.
The plaintiff says in the documents that “the trial court also erred in overturning Heard’s objection,” arguing that her statements “are unchallengeable expressions of opinion and are not reasonably capable of conveying the alleged implication defamatory”.
He adds: “That statement, if it is allowed to stand, it undoubtedly will it will have a chilling effect on other women who want to talk about abuse involving powerful men.
Heard also argues that “this case also should not have gone to trial, because another court had already ruled that Depp had abused Heard on multiple occasions.” This is in reference to the 2020 UK trial, in which a court ruled that the newspaper the sun he was justified in his use of the phrase “wife beat” in a 2018 memo about Depp’s relationship with Heard.
Errors during the process
Once the Virginia trial began, the documents allege that Depp “failed to fulfill his legal obligation to demonstrate actual malice” because he “failed to show that Heard knew about and intended to convey the alleged defamatory implication that he had abused her”.
During the trial, according to the appeal documents, there were also “numerous evidentiary errors which badly damaged Heard. And they further claim that “the jury instructions lacked a key requirement to implicitly establish a libel claim.”
Then the documents refer to Heard’s victory at the trial, in which he received two million dollars, as the jury found Depp liable after his lawyer called Heard’s claims a “hoax.” In turn, Depp appealed that decision, arguing that he shouldn’t be held responsible for the comments made by his lawyer.
“The resulting jury verdict against Heard on all of Depp’s claims cannot be reconciled with the jury verdict against Depp on Heard’s counterclaim,” the documents read. Consequently, the verdict against Heard cannot stand.”
Meanwhile, Johnny Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and another $5 million in punitive damages, the latter of which was later reduced to $350,000 in accordance with the state’s statutory limit.
“Depp’s jury prize is clearly excessive given the narrow window of time in which Depp could recover,” say the lawyers of the actress.
Amber Heard’s appeal was long overdue as, in July, she filed several documents alerting the court of an impending appeal.
“We believe the court made errors that prevented a fair and just verdict under the First Amendment,” a Heard spokesperson said. “Therefore, we are appealing the verdict. Even if we realize it today’s presentation will light the bonfires of Twitterthere are steps we need to take to ensure fairness and justice.”
The actress instead chose to move away, at least for a while, from the United States and chose to live in Europe with her daughter Oonagh. Her spokesperson said: ‘Amber feels more privacy this way, she is treated well and can be less flamboyant and just be with her daughter. She she is focused on being a mother and wants to move forward and prepare for its next chapter.
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Source: Clarin
