Amber Heard’s lawyers have asked a judge to toss the $10.35 million verdict against her in the defamation case filed by former 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.
According to Variety, the 43-page document submitted to the Fairfax County Circuit Court Friday also calls “to investigate improper juror service,” claiming that public information indicates that a juror who served during the trial was born in 1970, despite court officials listing their birth year as 1945. “This discrepancy raises the question whether Juror 15 actually received a summons for jury duty and was properly vetted by the court to serve on the jury,” Heard’s lawyers wrote.
Johnny Depp had sued Amber 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 though it never mentioned him by name. Since the conclusion of the trial, which Heard lost in June, Heard has appeared for interviews regarding the situation, describing the seven-week legal battle that unfolded in the public eye to “Today” as “the most humiliating and horrible thing [she had] ever been through.”
Now, Amber Heard’s legal team argues that the jurors’ $10.35 million award against the actress is “inconsistent and irreconcilable” with the jury’s conclusion both her and Johnny Depp had defamed one another. In addition to Depp’s $10 million in compensatory damages, plus $350,000 in punitive damages, the jury also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages for her counterclaim. “Mr. Depp presented no evidence that Ms. Heard did not believe she was abused,” Heard’s attorneys wrote. “Therefore, Mr. Depp did not meet the legal requirements for actual malice, and the verdict should be set aside.”
As per the report, Johnny Depp’s lead attorney, Ben Chew, commented on the motion to toss the verdict, dismissing it as “what we expected, just longer, no more substantive” in a statement to Courthouse News.
Also Read: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Amber Heard not been recast in the sequel
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