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Amber Heard has suggested an appeal could be filed following Johnny Depp’s victory in the defamation trial between the former couple.
Judge Penney Azcarate issued a verdict on Friday that changed the case on May 1. Law & Crime Annette Levy reported.
The actors’ legal teams met in court on Friday, but it remains unclear if they have spoken about a settlement. Judge Azcarate had given the two parties until Friday to reach an agreement if they wanted to.
Mrs. Levi reported via Twitter that the judge was “factual as usual” and that, as expected, Mr Depp’s legal team did not seek a restraining order.
The order read: “The jury’s verdict of $5 million in punitive damages in favor of Mr. Depp is hereby reduced to $350,000, the maximum statutory limit…with respect to the Complaint, a verdict in favor of Mr. Depp is hereby entered pleads against Ms. Heard for $10,350,000, with interest at the statutory rate of six percent from the date of this order.”
“Regarding the counterclaim, judgment is hereby entered in favor of Ms. Heard against Mr. Depp for US$2 million, with interest at the statutory rate of six percent from the date of this judgment,” the ruling concluded.
In a statement to the independent, A spokesman for Ms Heard said: “As established in yesterday’s congressional hearings, if you are innocent, do not apologize. And you don’t refuse to appeal when you know you’re right.”
Attorney Lisa Bloom believes we have not yet seen the end of the trial and that the case will be decided on appeal.
Ms Bloom, whose clients included Janice Dickinson (in her allegations against Bill Cosby), actor Mischa Barton (in a revenge porn lawsuit) and Harvey Weinstein (for whom Ms Bloom was an early counsel prior to her resignation), spoke in BBC Newsnight after the verdict in the defamation case.
The jury announced on June 1 that they had reached a decision in the case against Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. They found that Ms. Heard had defamed Mr. Depp in three statements and that Ms. Heard was defamed in one of three statements at the center of their counterclaim. Mr Depp was awarded $10.35 million in damages and Ms Heard $2 million.
“I would like to stress that this is not the end as most defamation cases are really decided on appeal,” Ms Bloom told Newsnight, adding that she saw “a lot of problems on appeal” in the Depp v. Heard case.
She also called the verdict “inconsistent” as the jury found that both Mr Depp and Ms Heard were defamed.
In particular, the jury found that Mr Depp was defamed in Ms Heard’s comment, in which she described herself as “a public figure who depicts domestic violence”. They also noted that Ms Heard was defamed in a statement by Adam Waldman (a former lawyer for Mr Depp), in which he called some of Ms Heard’s allegations “hoaxes”.
“How is it that Amber Heard was defamed when Johnny Depp’s lawyer said her allegations were a hoax, and yet Johnny Depp was also defamed when she said she was a domestic violence advocate?” asked Ms Bloom. “I think that’s inconsistent and you can’t make an inconsistent judgment.”
Ms Bloom went on to point out that one of the three statements found by the jury to be defamatory was the headline of the article, which Ms Heard “did not write”. “She retweeted it but she didn’t write it,” Ms Bloom added. “I retweet articles all the time. Am I responsible if there is a false statement in this article? In general, we think people are not responsible for that.”
Ms Bloom said she believed the case would get a “more definitive answer” “in a year or two”.
Ms Heard’s lawyer said so today show that Ms Heard “absolutely” intends to appeal the verdict, arguing that “this court has admitted a number of things that should not have been allowed”.
