Johnny Depp: Her lawyers insist Amber Heard pay $ 10 million “for defamation”

Johnny Depp’s lawyers back him up his $ 10.35 million libel verdict against ex-wife Amber Heard should be valid, despite the possibility that one of the jurors has been questioned. Immediately, They called the legal arguments “frivolous”.

For their part, Heard’s lawyers intend to overturn the verdict and bet on a retrial because one of the seven jurors has never received a subpoena.

Last week, Heard’s defenders noted that the information was on the panel’s list of the jury sent to the lawyer before the trial does not appear to match the demographics of one of the jurorswhich compromises Heard’s rights to due process.

But in a filing on Monday, Depp’s lawyers said Heard has not proven that he suffered any harm as a result of the mistake and that he has waived his right to object. not raising the question first.

“Unsurprisingly, Ms. Heard does not cite jurisprudence to support her argument that serving juror 15, if not the same person appointed by the court as juror 15, somehow compromised her due process and would justify the drastic remedy of ‘overriding the verdict and ordering a retrial’ “Depp’s lawyers wrote.

“Heard shows no bias and as a result his speculative arguments fail.”

Give and take

Depp received $ 10.35 million after the jury found Heard defamed him by referring to his domestic violence allegations in a December 2018 editorial in the #MeToo movement.

Heard also received $ 2 million in a counter-suit.in which she claimed that Depp’s lawyer had defamed her by accusing her and her friends of creating an elaborate abuse hoax.

Heard’s lawyers also tried to overturn the verdict for various other reasons. They argued that Depp’s team put forward inadequate arguments to the trial, trying to hold her accountable. for the first reports of domestic violence, 2016which Depp had given up his right to contest in the couple’s divorce settlement.

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They also claimed that the jurors could not logically have found out that Depp had suffered any harm as a result of the editorial, which was published more than two years later. after Depp’s reputation had already been badly damaged.

In the filing, Depp’s attorneys pointed to the evidence they had presented to prove this Depp lost a sixth movie of Pirates of the Caribbean after the opinion piece. They argued that the evidence showed that Depp was actually entitled to a lot more than $ 10 million.

They also noted that Heard’s attorneys had lost the right to challenge Depp’s concluding arguments by not opposing them at the time.

The tip of the ball

Depp is suing Heard for libel over a 2018 editorial he wrote about Washington Post in which she defined herself as a “public person representing domestic abuse”. Although Depp was not named in the article, he did claim that he cost him lucrative acting roles.

Heard countered Depp, to whom she was married between 2015 and 2016 prior to their divorce, for libel over statements made by Depp’s attorney about his abuse allegations.

After several weeks of testimony, the jury found Heard slandered Depp in three separate statements in the article. Washington Postand that Depp defamed Heard with a statement made by his attorney.

CJL