Amber Heard Asks for Defamation Trial Verdict to Be Dropped

Amber Heard has filed to have the verdict in the high-profile defamation lawsuit with her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, to be dropped.

Heard's lawyers, Elaine Bredehoft and Ben Rottenborn, filed a 53-page document asking that the jury's verdict be set aside on all three counts that Heard was found liable for, to dismiss Depp's complaint.

They also requested for claims that a juror assumed a false identity to be investigated.

In the document, Heard's lawyers argue that there was insufficient evidence to support Depp's claims that Heard had defamed him and asserted that the jury's compensatory and punitive damage award was excessive as a matter of law, saying that Depp only deserved reputational damages.

On June 1, Depp won his $50 million defamation case against his ex-spouse.

After less than three days of deliberation, a seven-person jury handed down the verdict in Virginia and found that Depp had been defamed by three statements in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed she wrote about her experience with domestic abuse and described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”.

He was not referred to by name in the piece. However, the abuse allegations had cost him money and career opportunities.

Heard has countersued for $100 million for defamation over statements made by an attorney for Depp who called her claims of abuse a “hoax”.

The trial kicked off on April 11 in the Washington, D.C.-adjacent jurisdiction and continued for six weeks.

The jury awarded Depp $15 million — $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

However, Azcarate reduced the punitive damages figure to $350,000, the maximum allowed in the state, which makes Depp’s total haul around $10.4 million.

The jury, consisting of five men and two women, also concluded that Heard was defamed by a lawyer for Depp who accused her of creating a detailed hoax surrounding the abuse allegations.

She was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages to Heard, but $0 in punitive damages.

However, Azcarate didn’t enter the jury verdict into the docket,  and decided instead to do it on Friday, unless the two parties agreed to a settlement.

Following the trial, Heard's lawyer said that the actress couldn’t afford the $8 million she owed her former husband and that she planned to appeal the case.

Also included in the memo was an allegation that the identity of a jury member — Juror 15 — had not been adequately established while the jury was being assembled, which may have led to Heard being denied due process in the case.

"The court should investigate whether Juror 15 properly served on the jury," the document read.

Heard's team argued that the designated Juror 15 was listed as being born in 1945, but claimed that the Juror 15 who served during the trial was clearly born later than 1945.

"This discrepancy raises the question whether Juror 15 actually received a summons for jury duty and was properly vetted by the Court to serve on the jury," read the document.

Per the memo, Heard's lawyers asked for appropriate action to be taken based on the results of the investigation.

The lawyers wrote that, based on the arguments in the memorandum, the court should set aside the jury's verdict in the case entirely, dismiss Depp's complaint, or order a new trial.

Heard's motion to dismiss the verdict came a week after she and Depp failed to reach a settlement before their June 24 deadline — finalizing the jury's verdict.