{"id":24130,"date":"2022-12-05T07:49:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T12:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=24130"},"modified":"2022-12-05T07:49:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T12:49:00","slug":"amber-heard-files-appeal-against-johnny-depp-libel-trial-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/12\/05\/amber-heard-files-appeal-against-johnny-depp-libel-trial-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"Amber Heard files appeal against Johnny Depp libel trial verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Amber Heard has filed an appeal against her ex-husband Johnny Depp&#8217;s US libel lawsuit win.<\/p>\n<p>Following a trial lasting several weeks earlier in the year, a jury in Virginia found in favour of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/johnny-depp-6125\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Depp<\/strong><\/a><strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>ruling that a 2018 Washington Post article written by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/amber-heard-6126\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Heard<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0was defamatory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/johnny-depp-wins-us-libel-lawsuit-against-former-wife-amber-heard-12609397\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The actor was awarded $15m (\u00a312m) by the court<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0&#8211; comprising $10m (\u00a38m) compensatory damages and a further $5m (\u00a34m) in punitive damages &#8211; but the judge capped the punitive damages in accordance with legal limits, resulting in a total of $10.35m (around \u00a38.5m).<\/p>\n<p>Depp&#8217;s case was that Heard defamed him in the article, in which she described herself as a victim of domestic abuse.<\/p>\n<p>While she did not mention the 59-year-old by name, he argued that the implication was clear &#8211; and denied allegations of abuse.<\/p>\n<p>The Court of Appeals of Virginia received an opening brief for Heard&#8217;s appeal on 23 November and US media outlet Deadline has shared details of the 68-page report. It comes after the Aquaman actress filed an official notice that she would appeal earlier in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>Heard, 36, is calling for the original verdict to be dismissed, or for a new trial to be held, according to the document.<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for the actress argue that Depp and the case have &#8220;no meaningful connection&#8221; to Virginia and that it was &#8220;wholly inconvenient&#8221; for him to sue there rather than California &#8211; where &#8220;both parties lived and where Depp claimed to have suffered reputational harm&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>They said Fairfax County Court, where the trial took place, was &#8220;mistaken&#8221; in its conclusion that Depp&#8217;s claims arose in the state because the Washington Post&#8217;s servers are located there.<\/p>\n<p>They have also argued that the case should not have gone to trial at all in the US following the verdict in Depp&#8217;s separate case against The Sun in the UK in 2020, which he lost &#8211; the judge in that case ruled an article published by the newspaper about abuse allegations against Depp was &#8220;substantially true&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Heard&#8217;s lawyers also say that there were &#8220;evidentiary errors that severely prejudiced&#8221; the actress during the US trial.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The US trial verdict<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>After six weeks of testimony, the Depp v Heard court case came to an end on 1 June, with the jury finding that a 2018 article Heard wrote for the Washington Post, about her alleged experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse, was defamatory towards Depp.<\/p>\n<p>Heard won on one count of her counter-suit, successfully arguing that one of Depp&#8217;s attorneys defamed her by claiming her allegations were &#8220;an abuse hoax&#8221; aimed at capitalising on the #MeToo movement.<\/p>\n<p>The jury awarded her $2m (\u00a31.5m) in damages.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/amber-heard-says-she-and-johnny-depp-were-awful-to-each-other-but-that-she-always-told-the-truth-in-first-interview-since-actors-libel-case-win-12633632\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amber Heard gives first interview following verdict<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/johnny-depp-might-return-to-fantastic-beasts-films-replacement-actor-mads-mikkelsen-says-12674274\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Depp might return to Fantastic Beasts, says replacement<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Following the US trial verdict, Depp has been throwing himself into his music career, performing with Jeff Beck and announcing a tour for his rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>He also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/johnny-depp-makes-surprise-cameo-at-mtv-vmas-with-taylor-swift-and-harry-styles-among-big-winners-12684348\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>made a surprise cameo\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards &#8211; joking with the audience he &#8220;needed the work&#8221; as he was projected on stage dressed as an astronaut.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\" alt=\"Sky News\" width=\"100\" height=\"20\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/amber-heard-files-appeal-against-johnny-depp-libel-trial-verdict-12762074\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Amber Heard has filed an appeal against her ex-husband Johnny Depp&#8217;s US libel lawsuit win. Following a trial lasting several weeks earlier in the year, a jury in Virginia found in favour of\u00a0Depp,\u00a0ruling that a <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/12\/05\/amber-heard-files-appeal-against-johnny-depp-libel-trial-verdict\/\" title=\"Amber Heard files appeal against Johnny Depp libel trial verdict\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,3],"tags":[7424,177,8988,1023,8553,8987,1851,2556,309],"class_list":{"0":"post-24130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-amber-heard","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-court-of-appeals-of-virginia","13":"tag-defamation","14":"tag-fairfax","15":"tag-fairfax-county-court","16":"tag-johnny-depp","17":"tag-libel","18":"tag-virginia","19":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24133,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24130\/revisions\/24133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}