Heard seeks to throw out verdict in Depp defamation trial
Amber Heard’s lawyers have asked a judge to throw out the US$ 10.35 million verdict against her in the defamation case filed by ex- husband Johnny Depp, arguing that the verdict was not supported by the evidence and that one of the jurors may not have been properly vetted by the court.
In post- trial motions filed last Friday, Heard’s attorneys call the jury’s June 1 award of $ 10 million in compensatory damages and $ 5 million in punitive damages to Depp “excessive” and “indefensible”. They ask the judge to set aside the verdict and dismiss Depp’s lawsuit or order a new trial. Immediately after the verdict, the judge reduced the compensatory damages to $ 350,000 under a state cap.
Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op- ed she wrote in The Washington Post , describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”. Depp’s lawyers alleged he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned him by name.
The six- week televised trial turned into a spectacle that offered a window into their dysfunctional marriage. Much of the testimony focused on Heard’s claims that she had been physically and sexually abused by Depp. Heard described more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a
Pirates of the Caribbean sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.
Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser. Depp had to prove that he never assaulted Heard, that her op- ed piece defamed him and that she wrote the article with actual malice.