The $100 million libel case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is so intricate that the jury must answer 42 questions before reaching a decision, according to DailyMail.com.
The document, which was provided by the court in Fairfax, Virginia, states that Depp’s allegations include 24 questions while Heard’s counterclaim has 18.
The jury’s decision on the case is formalized using a verdict form.
It spans eight pages, implying that the jury must make decisions on hundreds of issues before reaching a conclusion.
There is also a section where they will have to decide on the damages for Depp and Heard – and any punitive damages.
The case is now being deliberated by the jury after six weeks of graphic and raw evidence about Depp and Heard’s stormy four year relationship and 15 month marriage.
Depp is seeking $50m from Heard for allegedly defaming him with an op-ed in the Washington Post in 2018 which claimed she was a survivor of domestic abuse.
According to the Pirates of the Caribbean star, even though it didn’t mention him by name it was obviously about him.
Heard countersued for $100m claiming that Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman defamed her by claiming her allegations were an ‘abuse hoax’.
The verdict sheet, called a ‘Special Verdict Form’ asks the jury eight questions about each of the three statements at issue in Heard’s op-ed.
They were that Heard ‘spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change’.
The second statement is: ‘Two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out’.
The third is: ‘I had the rare vantage point of seeing in real time how institutions protect men accused of abuse’.
In each case the jury has to ‘find that Mr. Depp has proven all the elements of defamation’.
If the answer is no, then they can move on to the next statement.
But if they answer yes then the jury has to confirm all the necessary elements of defamation: that the statement as published by Heard, it was about Depp, that it was false, has a defamatory implication, that it was ‘designed and intended by Heard’ and that it ‘conveyed a defamatory implication’ to someone who saw it other than Depp.
The final question for each statement in the op-ed is whether it was proven by ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that Heard acted with ‘actual malice’.
The test is to show that the statements in question were made knowing they were false, the threshold for defamation.
For Heard’s claims against Depp, the jury has to answer six questions for each of the three statements at issue made by Waldman, Depp’s lawyer, to the media in 2020.
They were that Heard used ‘fake sexual violence allegations as both a sword and a shield,’ that the claims were an ‘ambush, a hoax’ and that Heard and her friends faked a crime scene, and that the allegations were an ‘abuse hoax’.
In each case the jury has to answer whether Heard has proven all the elements of defamation.
If yes then the jury has to go through each of the necessary elements: did Waldman make the statements while acting as an agent for Depp, was the statement about Heard, was it seen by someone other than Head and was it false.
The jury also has to find that Waldman acted with ‘actual malice.’
For both Depp and Heard’s claims the jury has to enter an amount for damages and punitive damages.
Both sides are asking for at least $350,000 in punitive damages, plus legal fees and court costs.
While Depp has not disclosed how much he has spent on attorneys, Heard told the court she has blown $6m on legal fees, though that number may have included a previous trial in London in 2020 which covered similar allegations.
During closing arguments on Friday Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez described Heard as a ‘deeply troubled person’.
She said: ‘There is an abuser in this courtroom but it’s not Mr. Depp. There’s a victim of abuse in this court but it’s not Miss Heard.
‘Miss Heard is in fact the abuser and Mr Depp is the abused.’
Heard’s lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn urged the jury not to become an ‘accomplice’ in sending a message to survivors of abuse that they have to be perfect.
He said that abusive texts shown to the jury were a ‘window into the soul of America’s favorite pirate’, referring to Depp’s role as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Depp was pictured smiling and waving to fans when he left the courthouse while Amber Heard was seen hugging her lawyer as jurors began deliberations Friday.
He left and shook hands with police officers before appeasing the large crowd of fans outside who were armed with banners and cameras.
Heard’s legal team had told the jury in closing arguments to ‘think about the message’ Johnny Depp and his legal team are sending Heard and ‘by extension every victim of domestic violence.’
Taking the floor Friday, Heard’s lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn said, ‘If you didn’t take pictures it didn’t’ happen. If you did take pictures they’re fake. If you didn’t tell your friends they’re lying. If you did tell your friends they’re part of the hoax.’
‘Failure to seek medical attention meant you were not injured,’ Rottenborn said. ‘If you do seek medical treatment then you’re crazy and if you do everything to help your spouse rid himself of drugs and drink then ‘you’re a nag.’
Rottenborn continued, ‘And if you decide enough is enough and you have to leave to save yourself you’re a gold digger. That’s the message Mr. Depp is asking you to send.
He said that in Johnny Depp’s ‘world’ you don’t leave him, and if you do ‘he will start campaign of global humiliation against you.
‘He will do everything he can to destroy your life, to destroy your career. That’s what they’re trying to get you to be an accomplice to.’
‘Mr. Depp cannot and will not take responsibility for his own actions.’
Jurors are set to resume deliberations Tuesday, with a verdict in the coming days imminent.