Amber Heard Dumps Lawyer, Hires New Legal Team To Spearhead Appeal in Johnny Depp Defamation Case

Amber Heard has fired the attorney who represented her in her failed defamation suit with Johnny Depp, and she is now attempting to appeal the ruling.

Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, who defended Amber Heard in the six-week slander trial, has left the firm.

Amber Heard Makes Big Change to Her Legal Strategy

As the appeal advances, attorneys David L. Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown, who represented The New York Times earlier this year in a defamation action against 2008 vice presidential contender Sarah Palin, will take over. They work with Ballard Spahr and have covered a wide range of issues, including firms and people in a high-stakes civil action, speakers in First Amendment claims, journalists and news organizations, and others.

When a jury found in June that Heard, 36, had defamed Depp in a newspaper opinion article published in 2018, she was sentenced to pay her ex-husband more than $10 million in damages. Following the ruling, Bredhoft stated in an interview that she was unable to pay the millions of dollars in damages owed to Johnny Depp. Heard's legal team submitted an appeal notice with the Virginia Court of Appeals in Fairfax County more than a month later.

Throughout the defamation trial, Bredehoft earned compassion from Depp fans who said she appeared tired despite claims that Heard had shouting battles with her legal team outside of the courtroom. Online support for Bredehoft grew in the aftermath of Heard's May hearing, during which the attorney struggled during questioning. On the penultimate day of the trial, while Bredehoft cross-examined Heard, Depp's lawyer, Camille Vasquez, objected to every other question Bredehoft sought to ask.

Vasquez's objections were upheld multiple times by the Judge before the well-known case, leading Bredehoft to halt in the middle of a question several times, as per Daily Mail.

Experts Applaud Amber Heard's Move

Texas civil lawyer Katherine Lizardo, who carefully watched the trial, predicted the shift in the defense team and highlighted that it would help Heard. According to Lizardo, appeal lawyers are a "different species" of attorneys who are professionals in the "nuanced and specialty" field of law.

Lizardo also mentioned that arguing an appeal case, which in Virginia only permits each party to speak for 15 minutes before a three-judge panel, requires a specific manner. According to New York civil lawyer William Newman, Axelrod and Brown's actions in Palin's lawsuit against the Times foreshadow the sort of technique the legal team would employ in Heard's appeal.

The attorneys had focused on establishing that statements made in a Times story about the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee were not made with actual malice - a higher legal standard used in cases involving notable persons. According to New York civil lawyer William Newman, Axelrod and Brown's actions in Palin's lawsuit against the Times foreshadow the sort of technique the legal team would employ in Heard's appeal.

The attorneys had concentrated on demonstrating that remarks made against the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee in a Times article were not made with genuine malice - a higher legal bar employed in instances involving prominent figures. Judge Azcarate dismissed Heard's allegation that she was not given a fair trial because one juror reportedly served on the panel without being called, noting "no proof of fraud or malfeasance" that requires a mistrial, according to New York Post.

Heard won one of her three counterclaims against her ex-husband, with the jury ruling that Johnny Depp defamed her by calling her allegations about a 2016 event "an ambush, a fake" through his lawyer, Adam Waldman. She was given $2 million in compensatory damages but no punitive penalties, putting the Aquaman star out of pocket by $8.35 million.

Heard's counsel filed an appeal against the $10.35 million judgment in July, claiming that "the court committed mistakes that prohibited a reasonable and equitable decision consistent with the First Amendment." The next day, Depp filed an appeal notice against the jury's $2 million defamation judgement to his ex-wife, Independent reported.