Amber Heard’s legal team submitted a motion to have the defamation verdict against her ex-husband Johnny Depp overturned.
The motion was submitted on Friday by Heard’s 36-year-old defence team on the grounds that the evidence supporting the jury’s finding that she had slandered Depp, 59, was insufficient.
They also claimed that one of the jurors had not been thoroughly screened, and they questioned whether they even had the right to serve on the panel.
Heard’s attorneys argued in a 43-page memorandum that the judgment, as well as the $10 million in damages she now owes Depp, should be overturned because Depp “proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms. Heard’s statements were actually false” during the trial.
Ben Chew, Depp’s primary attorney, responded to the motion by saying, “What we expected, just lengthier, no more substantive,” in a statement to Courthouse News.
The motion questioned the legitimacy of the jury selection procedure by bringing up Juror 15, whose birth year was 1945 according to court documents.
According to the complaint, Juror 15 “was plainly born after 1945.” He appears to have been born in 1970, according to information that is readily available to the public.
This disparity begs the question of whether Juror 15 was properly screened by the court to serve on the jury and whether he or she ever got a summons for jury duty.
The complaint states, “It appears his identification could not have been established.”
Heard further contended that the jury’s decision to give Depp excessive damages was based on factors unrelated to the subject of his lawsuit.
The motion claims that despite Depp having “represented to the court he would limit his damages to the period Dec. 18, 2018 through Nov. 2, 2020” — the time between Heard’s op-ed about Depp’s alleged abuse being published in the Washington Post and when a UK court found that he had abused Heard — Depp made no attempt to narrow the scope of his alleged damages within that two-year time period.
“Mr. Depp made no such attempt to restrict his claimed damages at any time during the trial.
Instead, Mr. Depp persisted in asking the jury to clear his name and preserve his legacy for his children despite Ms. Heard’s accusation of domestic violence against him in May 2016 throughout the Closings.
During the most recent hearing in the case on June 24, when the judge formalized the verdict in the court’s records, Judge Penney Azcarate made it apparent that she did not want the case to move forward as it is. She rejected requests from Heard’s legal team for additional hearings.
That day, Judge Azcarate informed Heard’s team that they might request a judicial appeal if they want one.
The June judgement concluded that both celebrities had slandered one another, although Depp’s hand was far more favourable.
While Heard only received $2 million in damages from Depp, he received $10.35 million from her.
Heard owed Depp a hefty $8.35 million in total.
Heard later acknowledged, via her attorney, that she was unable to pay the millions in damages, and a day after the verdict, her attorney announced that she would be appealing the decision.
Her stance on the situation has subsequently changed, though, and rumours are circulating that she intends to write a “tell-all” book to make money to cover the damages.
Heard was allegedly “broke” and “in a position to turn down money,” according to a source close to her.
After a terrible few months, they claimed she “considers her career in Hollywood gone” and “had nothing to lose.”
Depp’s attorney Benjamin Chew hinted that the actor could be ready to forego the millions of dollars in damages owed to him if Heard agreed not to pursue an appeal during an interview on Good Morning America earlier in June.
However, Heard’s attorneys lost that opportunity on June 24 during the hearing when they refused to reach such a settlement and Azcarate rendered the decision, leaving Heard with no other option than to file an appeal.
Heard would still need to come up with the money to post a bond for the total sum of the $10.35 million while the appeal is pending in order to accomplish that, which is a customary procedure.