Johnny Depp appeals ex-wife Amber Heard's $2 million win at Fairfax County Court
by Ana Walia | Fri, 04 Nov 2022 20:00:31 GMT
Johnny Depp appeals Amber Heard's win. Image Source: Vanity Fair 

Johnny Depp appeals Amber Heard's win Fairfax County Court. 

According to reports, actor Johnny Depp's attorney have recently filed a 44-pages appeal of Amber Heard’s counterclaim win, arguing that the verdict was erroneous and should be overturned.

On June 1, a seven-person jury in Fairfax County Court, Virginia ruled that Amber Heard defamed her ex-husband Johnny Depp in a 2018 op-ed about domestic violence, despite not naming the actor. Johnny Depp won all three counts of his defamation suit and was granted more than $10 million in damages, according to the jury.

The jury also awarded Amber Heard $2 million in damages after ruling that Johnny Depp's lawyer, Adam Waldman, defamed the actress in his statement. She won one of her three legal case claims, and after the decision was announced, Amber Heard's team announced and filed an appeal, and later, Johnny Depp's team announced that they would also appeal Amber Heard's win.

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Johnny Depp's legal team filed a motion in the Virginia Court of Appeals on Wednesday, arguing that Johnny Depp shouldn't be held liable for remarks made by his attorney, Adam Waldman. The disputed statement was made by Johnny Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman to the Daily Mail on April 27, 2020, when he asserted that Amber Heard and her friends had set up Johnny Depp by calling the cops with a "hoax" of abuse allegations in 2016. When commenting, the jury determined that Adam Waldman was acting as a representative for Johnny Depp.

According to court papers obtained by Law & Crime Network, despite receiving a unanimously advantageous verdict on all three defamatory alleged in his complaint, he was completely vindicated. Johnny Depp decided to include that his court determines was confronted with several novel and complicated legal and factual issues and that while the trial court resolved the vast majority of those issues rationally and correctly, a few verdicts were incorrect.

The documents continued to state that Amber Heard provided no evidence at trial that Johnny Depp was involved in trying to direct or make any of the three Adam Waldman's statements. further, it said that indeed, Johnny Depp gave testimony that he had never seen Adam Waldman's statements before the counterclaim was filed in August 2020 adding that Adam Waldman is an independent contractor, whose allegedly wrongful act of conduct is not inevitably attributable to Johnny Depp.

No proof of Adam Waldman's criminal intent was introduced by Amber Heard's legal counsel at trial, according to Johnny Depp's team. This Court should reverse the judgment on Amber Heard's counterclaim concerning the Adam Waldman Statement of April 27, but uphold the judgment in Mr. Depp's favor otherwise.

In August, Amber Heard's representative announced that the actress had transformed her team of lawyers for the appeal. Elaine Charlson Bredehoft decided to step down as co-counsel, and she appointed David L. Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown of Ballard Spahr to lead. To paraphrase a famous quote, "when it comes to safeguarding the basic freedom of expression, we see the judge's verdict as the conclusion of the beginning, not the beginning of the end. A different court requires different representation, especially with so much new evidence now emerging," her attorney said at the time.

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After Judge Penney Azcarate denied Amber Heard's request for a mistrial in July, Johnny Depp's legal team declared that they, too, will indeed appeal her countersuit verdict. In a July statement, a spokesperson for Amber Heard stated that they believe the jury made some errors that avoided a just and fair verdict coherent with the First Amendment and as a result they are appealing the verdict.

Johnny Depp's legal counsel said at the time that while they recognise that today's filing will cause a Twitter frenzy, there are steps they must take to ensure fairness and justice.The jury listened to the comprehensive presentation of evidence during in the six-week trial and happened to come to a clear and unanimous judgement that the defendant herself defamed Johnny Depp in multiple instances. The Depp counsel said that they remain optimistic about their case and believe that this verdict will stand.

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