Amber Heard’s legal team has filed an appeal, asking for a fresh trial or a reversal of the jury’s $10 million judgment against her. After a defamation trial earlier this year, she was directed to pay the sum to her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Amber Heard’s attorneys have supposedly filed a fresh 68-page appeal against Johnny Depp, claiming that the judgment will have a “chilling effect” on women who are attempting to speak against such abuse by powerful men.
This comes under a month now since Johnny Depp tried to appeal against Amber Heard becoming granted $2 million in their high-profile defamation case.
Amber claimed that an unfair trial had occurred as a result of the deletion of portions of her treatment notes in which she reported Johnny’s attack when she submitted her appeal with the Virginia court in the US this month.
Amber’s new attorneys Jay Ward Brown and David L Axelrod responded in the November 23 filed document: Because the Washington Post’s servers are there, the trial court erroneously believed that Depp’s accusations were likewise brought there. This is why it decided against dismissing the lawsuit just on grounds that the location was unsuitable.
Amber Heard’s legal team disagreed with Judge Penney Azcarate’s choice to throw out some of the “highly probative” evidence, such as the extensive therapist notes that support the abuse allegations.
In the 68-page brief, it was argued that since a prior court had previously found Depp guilty of repeatedly assaulting Heard, “this case also shouldn’t have gone to trial.”
The appealed court filing now asks that the judgment against her, which may be worth up to $10 million, be set aside or reversed since she asked for a new trial. The statement in the paper read, “The trial judge as well erred in overruling Amber Heard’s demurrer.”
“She stated that the in-issue statements now appear to be non-actionable representations of perspective and aren’t fairly able to communicate the alleged defamatory inference,”
After reading her op-ed in The Washington Post from the previous year, in which she claimed to be a “public figure representing domestic abuse,” Johnny sued his ex-wife Amber for $50 million in March 2019.
Johnny had claimed that he had been the victim of abuse in the couple’s relationship in his join to the court documents. Johnny was given $10 million in monetary damages and $5 million for civil penalties during the seven-week slander trial.
Although still the absolute highest in the State, maximum damages were further decreased to $350,000. In contrast, Amber also received a $2 million damage award.
