Amber Heard Files For New Trial Against Johnny Depp

Amber Heard's legal team has asked the Virginia jury to set aside the June verdict in favor of Johnny Depp, dismiss the complaint or order a new trial.

Credit: Abaca Press / Alamy

Per the Independent, the 36-year-old Aquaman actress’s legal team argued in a lengthy filing in Virginia court on Friday (June 1) that the ruling had several issues, including inadequate reasoning, an improper jury, and excessively awarded damages.

Last month, a seven-person jury in the Fairfax court ruled largely in favor of the 59-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean actor in a split verdict.

The jury found that Heard had defamed him in a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post in which she implied that she was a domestic abuse victim, despite not naming him.

The decision ordered the Danish Girl actress to pay her former husband $10.4 million in punitive and compensatory damages. In return, she was awarded $2 million in punitive damages due to one of Depp's attorney's being found liable for defamation.

Credit: REUTERS / Alamy

In the court documents, Heard's attorney Elaine Bredehoft said the case was on faulty legal logic, arguing that Depp’s claims "proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms. Heard’s statements were actually false"

Bredehoft also argued that Depp’s legal team initially said that the highly-publicized case would focus on the period after the op-ed came out, but instead it included events and statements from back in 2016.

Another section examines the fact that Heard's op-ed doesn't name the actor, an argument that was repeatedly made during the defamation trial.

Bredehoft further explained that Depp isn't entitled to damages for any conduct before the op-ed, while it also indicates "the verdicts on the complaint and counterclaim are inconsistent and therefore should be set aside," and that Depp "did not present evidence of actual malice".

Bredehoft concludes by stating: "Ms. Heard respectfully requests this Court to set aside the jury verdict in favor of Mr. Depp and against Ms. Heard in its entirety, dismiss the Complaint, or in the alternative, order a new trial.

"Ms. Heard further requests this Court to investigate potential improper juror service and take appropriate action warranted by the results of the investigation," she added.

Johnny Depp listens in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S. Credit: REUTERS / Alamy

Ben Chew, who leads the Fantastic Beasts' legal team, revealed to Courthouse News the appeal was expected, adding: "just longer, no more substantive".

In the course of the trial, which lasted for six weeks, the battle between the ex-celebrity couple evolved into something much bigger than a legal proceeding.

Instead, the case attracted frenzied media attention and was seen by some as the end of the MeToo movement.

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