Washington: Hollywood star Amber Heard’s legal team filed a motion Friday demanding that her decision in ex-husband Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit be overturned, which also included $10.35 million in damages awarded to Depp by a jury. According to Variety, in addition to arguing that the decision is not supported by evidence, Heard’s attorney requests that the Fairfax County Circuit Court “investigate improper juror service,” claiming that public information indicates that the trial’s One of the jury members who served during the period was born in 1970, despite court officials listing his year of birth as 1945.
Hurd’s lawyers wrote, “This discrepancy raises the question of whether Jury 15 actually received a subpoena for jury duty and was properly examined by the court to act on the jury.”
Heard’s legal team also claims that the jury’s $10.35 million ruling on the actress is “inconsistent and inconsistent,” with the jury’s determination that both she and Depp defame each other.
In addition to $10 million in compensatory damages to Depp and $350,000 in punitive damages, the jury awarded Hurd $2 million in compensatory damages for his counterclaim.
“Mr. Depp produced no evidence that Ms. Heard did not believe she had been abused,” Heard’s lawyers wrote.
“Therefore, Mr. Depp did not meet the legal requirements for genuine malice, and the verdict should be quashed.”
The lawsuit began when Depp, the plaintiff in the case, sued Heard for defamation after she published an op-ed in the Washington Post in 2018 recounting her earlier abuse allegations. Although the op-ed did not specifically reference Depp, the actor claimed that it damaged his reputation and ruined his career.
After two years of marriage, Heard and Depp split a year before the op-ed was published, with Heard stating that Depp had subjected her to emotional, physical and sexual abuse during their relationship.
Prior to the US trial, the High Court of London found a separate defamation case against Depp in 2020, after the actor sued for referring to the Sun as a “wife-beater”.
A United Kingdom court ruled that he attacked Heard in 12 of the 14 incidents.
As the hearing ended in June, Heard has given interviews about the incident, describing the seven-week court struggle as “the most humiliating and horrifying thing ever.” [she had] Ever” to “Today”.
The Guardian was the first to provide detailed coverage of the attempt to overturn Heard’s decision.