Amber Heard has officially appealed the decision in the defamation case brought by Johnny Depp, with her attorneys citing what they believe to be numerous errors committed at trial, including allowing the case to be heard in Virginia and refusing to allow communications between Heard and certain doctors to be admitted as evidence.
Depp in June was awarded US$10mil in compensatory damages and US$5mil in punitive damages — the latter reduced to US$350,000 in line with Virginia statute — after Heard was found liable for defaming him in an essay published by the Washington Post.
Heard, who had filed a countersuit, was awarded US$2mil at the same time after the jury found Depp liable for a comment made about Heard by his then-attorney Adam Waldman.
Heard’s appeal was filed Nov 23 with the Court of Appeals in Virginia.
Depp originally sued Heard for US$50mil in March 2019, alleging that an essay published by the Washington Post — whose servers are in Virginia — dubbed him a perpetrator of “sexual violence” and cost him tens of millions of dollars’ worth of lost work.
She countersued for US$100mil in summer of 2020, though attorney Elaine Bredehoft later said that Heard didn’t want that much money but rather wanted to send a message to her former husband.
In the appeal, Heard’s legal team alleges that California was the only appropriate venue for the trial and states that Virginia was a “completely inconvenient forum” for the case, with “both parties and most of the fact witnesses... located in California, with none of them located in Virginia.”
The appeal alleges errors surrounding evidence were made, including exclusion of the November 2020 decision in the UK defamation case that Depp brought unsuccessfully against the Sun, which had labelled him a “wife beater”.
The appeal claims irrelevant and prejudicial evidence was allowed, while third-party communications that allegedly went to both parties’ states of mind — including Heard’s communications with medical personnel — were excluded.
Among the other claims made in the appeal: Depp’s legal team allegedly did not prove “actual malice”; the jury was improperly instructed about the role of actual malice in the case; Heard didn’t write the online version of the headline that was discussed in court; the award was excessive; and the essay itself, which did not mention Depp by name, was “not reasonably capable of conveying a defamatory implication.”
While both parties filed initial appeal paperwork in July, Depp’s detailed filing didn’t come until early November. Now that Heard’s detailed filing is in as well, the case will go to a three-judge court of appeals panel for decisions.
If either Depp or Heard is unsatisfied with the appeals court’s decision, they can petition Virginia’s Supreme Court. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service