Amber Heard filed an appeal against Johnny Depp’s $15 million judgment against her, so the Pirates of the Caribbean star also filed an appeal. In her countersuit against Johnny, Amber was given $2 million, but the Edward Scissorhands star is also fighting that much smaller amount. HollywoodLife got documents that show Johnny filed his appeal on July 22 at the Virginia Court of Appeals in Fairfax County, Virginia.
On Thursday, July 21, it was reported that the 36-year-old Aquaman beauty’s lawyers had officially filed an appeal in Johnny’s famous case against her for libel. According to papers obtained by HL, Amber wants to appeal the verdict that she was guilty of hurting her ex-career husband when she wrote an editorial in the Washington Post calling herself a “public figure” for domestic violence. In the op-ed, Amber never mentioned Johnny by name. Ed Woodstar was previously given $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The case got a lot of attention, and most people thought Amber was the bad guy.
“We think the court made mistakes that kept it from giving a fair and just verdict that was in line with the First Amendment,” HL was told by a spokesperson for Amber. “Because of this, we are appealing the decision. Even though we know that today’s filing will set Twitter on fire, there are steps we need to take to make sure justice and fairness. On July 13, Amber’s request to have the whole case thrown out because of a mistrial was turned down.
Amber had asked Judge Penney Azcarate to throw out the case, saying that the wrong juror was chosen, which helped seal the actress’s fate in the defamation case. In his first statement after the trial, Johnny said, “The jury gave me my life back.”
This isn’t the first time the actor has tried to change the decision. Johnny lost his UK libel case against The Sun, which called him a “wife beater,” in a very public way. In November 2020, he filed an appeal. But Judge Andrew Nicol ruled against him again, keeping his first decision that 12 of the 14 alleged domestic violence incidents against Amber did happen based on the evidence.
The ruling said, “The findings of fact by a first instance tribunal (especially one like me that has heard oral evidence) are rarely open to challenge on appeal.” “In any case, I don’t think the proposed grounds of appeal have a good chance of working, and that’s also true if the grounds of appeal say I made a mistake in principle or law, and there’s no other good reason to let the appeal go forward.”
After the loss, Johnny had no choice but to quit his job in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
