December 06, (THEWILL) – Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are back in court, battling each other again.
A Virginia appeals court listened to an appeal filed by Heard, for the verdict that she defamed her ex-husband, Depp, by calling herself a survivor of domestic abuse in an op-ed in The Washington Post.
Recall that the jury handed Depp a victory and awarded him over $10 million.
Heard appealed the decision, and in October, Depp also appealed part of the verdict awarding Heard $2 million for defamatory statements from his lawyer, Adam Waldman. He moved to affirm the rest of the judgement.
“The jury’s emphatic favourable verdict on all three defamatory statements alleged in his Complaint fully vindicated Mr Depp and restored his reputation”, Benjamin Chew, representing Depp, wrote.
Here are the statements that Heard made in her opinion piece that led to the legal battle:
(1) “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath.”; (2) “Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.”; (3) “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real-time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”
Heard said that the case should not have gone to a jury.
“There is no objective basis for assessing the truth or falsity of whether Heard ‘felt’ or ‘faced our culture’s wrath,’ whether she is a ‘public figure representing domestic abuse,’ or whether she saw ‘institutions protect men”, Heard’s lawyer, Jay Brown, wrote.
“These statements are relative in nature and reflect Heard’s subjective viewpoints.”
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