£5m legal bill means defeat has cost more than just reputation
NOT only is Johnny Depp’s reputation in tatters but he will also now have an estimated £5 million legal bill to pay.
His defeat after a 16-day High Court libel trial leaves the actor to pay not only his legal costs but those of The Sun newspaper as well. Sources at News UK, the newspaper’s parent company, said they expected the total bill to come in at close to £5 million.
The Sun’s costs are understood to be in the region of £2 million while Depp’s own legal bill is closer to £3 million.
Depp was represented by Schillings, and The Sun by Simons Muirhead & Burton. The law firms instructed six barristers between them, including three QCS.
Mark Stephens, a media and human rights lawyer with Howard Kennedy law firm, said the main beneficiaries of Depp’s decision to bring the “catastrophic” libel action would be the lawyers on opposing sides. “The only winners are the lawyers who are going to be naming their extensions after Johnny Depp and also putting their children through private education on the Johnny Depp scholarship,” said Mr Stephens.
Mr Justice Nicol, who presided over the trial, made no mention of costs in his 129- page j udgment, but l egal sources said that costs would be awarded against Depp as the loser in the case. He may dispute the size of the bill at a subsequent hearing or simply agree to pay it when it is sent to him. The legal costs may put further pressure on Depp’s financial affairs.
The actor had complained during the trial of financial woes and claimed “former business managers… stole my money” to the tune of $650 million made during the peak of his career.
He also said he owed a further $100 million in taxes and that he had received this “very grim” news at a business meeting in 2016, making him late for his ex-wife Amber Heard’s 30th birthday party. Mr Justice Nicol
‘The only winners are the lawyers who are going to be naming their extensions after Johnny Depp’
concluded that Depp was “stressed” as a consequence of the financial losses and had then assaulted Heard at the party.
Depp is also fighting a separate legal action in the US having sued Heard for libel in a case lodged in Fairfax County, Virginia, in March 2019. That trial is expected to begin at some point after January 2021.
Legal experts said the costs of launching a libel action in the US will dwarf any costs of a UK trial. It is unclear what effect yesterday’s judgment in the High Court will have on Depp’s determination to proceed with the defamation case in the US.