Johnny Depp Files Appeal Over USD 2 Million Payout To Amber Heard

Actor Johnny Depp has now filed paperwork to appeal a Virginia court's finding that one of his lawyers defamed his ex-wife, actor Amber Heard, months after he won the defamation trial. Depp was given $10.35 million in damages from Amber Heard in the defamation case. During the same trial, the Virginia jury decided to grant her $2 million in a countersuit claim.

In Virginia, the US lawsuit was heard in court between April and May of this year. It was based on the claim that in a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post, Heard had defamed Depp by referring to herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Johnny Depp claimed that the op-ed damaged his reputation and ended his career, even though he wasn't specifically mentioned by name.

Johnny Depp Files Appeal Over USD 2 Million Payout To Amber Heard

Fox News reported that Johnny's documents read that the court "should reverse the judgement on Heard's counterclaim." Otherwise, he said, he agreed with the jury's verdict. It read, "The jury’s emphatic favourable verdict on all three defamatory statements alleged in his complaint fully vindicated Mr Depp and restored his reputation. However, the trial court was confronted with a number of novel and complex legal and factual issues, and although the trial court decided the vast majority of those issues sensibly and correctly, a few rulings were erroneous."

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The jury had agreed that Johnny was "vicariously liable" for remarks made by his lawyer to a tabloid in 2020, as Amber Heard had argued. In his appeal, Johnny Depp's attorneys have argued that because Adam Waldman was employed as an independent contractor, Depp is not liable for his remarks. The recent documents read, "No evidence of Mr Waldman's actual malice was presented at trial, so the judgment against Mr Depp cannot be sustained." Additionally, according to the report, Depp's team claimed that Adam's statements were "non-actionable statements of opinion insufficient to support a claim of defamation."

After two years of marriage, Depp and Heard divorced a year before the op-ed was released. She claimed that throughout their relationship, Depp had abused her emotionally, physically, and sexually.