Johnny Depp Is Taking Amber Heard Back To Court
Johnny Depp is taking Amber Heard back to court over the countersuit she won against the actor.
Despite Johnny Depp’s sweeping victory in his defamation trial against Amber Heard, the actor is determined to not pay the $2 million his ex-wife was awarded in a countersuit. The 59-year-old’s legal team has filed an appeal arguing that the verdict was “erroneous” and should be overturned. “This court should reverse the judgment on Ms. Heard’s counterclaim as to the April 27 Waldman statement, but should otherwise affirm the judgment in Mr. Depp’s favor,” the filing said.
During the libel trial, the court ruled that the 36-year-old was defamed when Johnny Depp’s lawyer accused Amber Heard of lying about abuse during a fight that ended their marriage. At the time, attorney Adam Waldman told Daily Mail, “So Amber and her friends spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight under the direction of a lawyer and publicist, and then placed a second call to 911.”
In his appeal, Johnny Depp’s legal team says he should not be held responsible for his lawyer’s comments to the publication, adding that Amber Heard’s attorneys failed to prove that Waldman made those remarks with malice. “Ms. Heard’s claim was fatally flawed, and the trial court should have granted Mr. Depp’s motion for summary judgment and his motion to strike the evidence,” the court filing continues.
Johnny Depp’s filing also says that Amber Heard presented no evidence that her former spouse was personally involved in directing any of the three Waldman statements. During the legal proceedings, the actor testified that he had never even seen the defamatory comments about his ex-wife before the filing of the counterclaim in August 2020. Additionally, the appeal states that Mr. Waldman is an independent contractor, whose conduct is not automatically attributable to the 59-year-old.
On June 1st, a seven-person jury found that the Aquaman star had defamed her in a 2018 op-ed about domestic violence for The Washington Post. Although she didn’t mention him by name, the Pirates of The Caribbean star won all three of his defamation claims and was awarded more than $10 million in damages. But they also awarded her $2 million for her countersuit which stated that, in characterizing her abuse allegations as a “hoax”, Johnny Depp’s attorneys had defamed Amber Heard.
While Johnny Depp moves on with his career, Amber Heard is currently stuck in another suit between her insurance companies overpaying for her defense. She was also unsuccessful in her initial attempts to have the Virginia verdict overturned or thrown out. However, both sides have filed their assignment of errors with the court last month, Deadline reports.
The procedural next step in the appeal process will see the court deciding the outcome of Johnny Depp’s three-point list of appeals and Amber Heard’s 16-point assignment of errors. While his are simple and clear, the actress’ list is rather ambitious, leaving almost no stone unturned. Due to a pandemic-related backlog in the justice system, it will be a long time before the former spouses get to testify once more.
For now, Johnny Depp will be making a special appearance at Rihanna’s fourth Savage X Fenty fashion show which airs via Amazon Prime Video on November 9th, while Amber Heard is reportedly living quietly in Spain.
