‘We Believe the Court Made Errors’: Amber Heard Reps Officially Appeal to Overturn Verdict Against Johnny Depp
Speculations of Amber Heard appealing the June 1 verdict on the Depp v Heard defamation case had been making the rounds for quite some time now. The seven-person jury consisting of 2 women and 5 men gave their verdict in favor of Johnny Depp finding Amber Heard guilty of defaming the Pirates of the Caribbean actor in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed, making her liable to compensate Johnny Depp with over $10 million in damages.
Point of no return: an official appeal has been filed
On Thursday morning, Amber Heard’s legal team officially filed a notice of appeal in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County. Heard’s spokesperson stated that:
“We believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment. We are therefore appealing the verdict. While we realize today’s filing will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we need to take to ensure both fairness and justice.”
Amber Heard had her mistrial allegations brutally denied
A week ago, Heard had made another set of headlines for requesting a mistrial on grounds of a juror committing identity theft, or to put it mildly, not being the one summoned from their family for jury duty. Penney Azcarate, the judge denied Heard’s appeal for lack of evidence proving any fraud among the jury. It was also underlined that even if the allegations were true, Heard’s legal team deliberately kept it under wraps to use it as a weapon in case they lost the verdict, which they did. They could’ve brought the matter to the Court’s notice easily during the six-week course of the trial. Johnny Depp’s legal team had made similar statements regarding the juror allegations as well.
The question of money; the answer’s elusive
While the verdict was made official last month by the judge, it was also ruled that the due damage would have a 6% annual interest. It was hence noted that the prerequisite for Heard to appeal the court was for her to post a bond for the total amount she owed in damages.
It hasn’t been a mystery for anyone that Amber Heard can’t pay the damages she owes and the same was made clear by Elaine Bredehoft, her lawyer, who stated in an interview the next day of the verdict that Amber Heard can “absolutely not” afford to pay the hefty amount, and that she did plan to appeal the verdict. The lawyer even revealed that Amber Heard had accumulated a long list of expenses since her legal fees alone had amounted up to $6 million. Johnny Depp had had his legal team convey that the defamation sue for him was “never about money … this was about restoring his reputation, and he’s done that.”
Amber Heard is fighting yet another legal battle
Currently, Amber Heard finds herself in the midst of another legal battle, that with her insurance provider who is allegedly responsible for paying her heaped-up legal fees, while Johnny Depp managed to have an out-of-court settlement with Gregg Brooks, the crew member who had accused him of physical assault.
Source: People
