Amber Heard Fights Back Over Unfair Johnny Depp Trial; Argues It Could Have Bad Effect on Other Domestic Abuse Cases

Amber Heard, Johnny Depp's ex-wife, has filed her appeal in the Virginia courts less than a month after Depp petitioned part of the ruling in his massive defamation lawsuit against the actress.

Moreover, according to Deadline, Heard's relatively young legal team is waving the banner of the First Amendment and regularly criticizing Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial court judge, Penney Azcarate.

Chilling Effect on Abused Women

According to the papers filed on November 23 by Jay Ward Brown and David L. Axelrod, "the trial court erroneously refused to dismiss this action on the ground of forum non-conveniens, based on its mistaken conclusion that Depp's claims arose in Virginia because the Washington Post's servers are located here."

Heard's lawyers also claimed the Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial should have been moved from Virginia to California, where the couple had previously resided.

According to the Amber Heard appeal, Virginia was completely impractical as a forum and has no real link to Depp or his allegations. If that Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial decision stands, it will send a "chilling effect on other women who wish to speak about abuse" involving men in positions of power, Amber Heard's lawyers argue.

The Constitutional law experts at D.C.-based Ballard Spahr LLP stated, the trial court also faulted in overruling Heard's objection, in which she contended that the disputed remarks are non-actionable utterances of viewpoint and "are not reasonably capable of conveying the alleged defamatory implication."

Amber Heard's appeal calls for the more than $10 million verdict against her to be overturned or thrown out, and she slams Judge Azcarate for improperly instructing the jury in the Fairfax County case that ended almost entirely in Depp's favor on June 1 and for "excluding highly probative evidence" and by acknowledging insignificant and "prejudicial evidence."

In their 68-page brief, the appellants argue that the case "should never have gone to trial" since a previous court had found that Johnny Depp had repeatedly assaulted Heard, the New York Post reported.

This appeal references the eventually failed libel suit that the ex-Pirates of the Caribbean actor made against Rupert Murdoch's The Sun tabloid in 2018 for labeling him a "wife-beater" in print.

This current petition from the "Aquaman" actress states, the trial court should have granted "preclusive effect" to that 129-page ruling," which came after a three-week trial in which Depp, Heard, and 24 other witnesses testified.

Additionally, Depp's legal team appealed the decision, arguing that the jury's verdict on the one count of defamation against Heard was "erroneous". In their petition, his lawyers said, the jury's unequivocal favorable finding on all three defamatory claims stated in his lawsuit entirely exonerated Mr. Depp and "restored his reputation."

What Happens Next?

A panel of judges will review both appeals and make a decision in the Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial. If either Depp or Heard's legal team is dissatisfied with the outcome, they may appeal to the state supreme court, according to a report from Daily Mail.

In March of this year, Depp filed a $50 million lawsuit against his ex-wife Heard over an opinion piece she wrote for the Washington Post in late 2018. The ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union discussed how she became a public figure representing domestic violence" in the article.

In June, a jury agreed with Depp's argument that Heard's op-ed in which she alleged allegations of domestic violence was libelous and awarded him $10.35 million.