After Johnny Depp largely prevailed in his defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard, her attorney Elaine Bredehoft announced her client \u201cabsolutely\u201d intends to appeal.<\/p>\n
The jury of five men and two women announced on Wednesday (1 June) it had found that Ms Heard defamed Mr Depp on three statements. Jurors also found that Ms Heard was defamed by one of three statements in her countersuit.<\/p>\n
The Independent spoke with three attorneys about Ms Heard\u2019s possible grounds for an appeal, or even a new trial: Lisa Bloom of The Bloom Firm, whose clients have included Janice Dickinson, Mischa Barton, and several victims of Jeffrey Epstein; Jesse Weber, a host and attorney at the Law & Crime network, who covered the trial from the courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia; and Mitra Ahouraian, an entertainment attorney in Beverly Hills who represents actors, directors, producers, and musicians.<\/p>\n
The phrasing of Amber Heard\u2019s op-ed<\/p>\n
Ms Bloom saw several appealable issues in the Depp v Heard verdict, beginning with the wording of the 2018 Washington Post op-ed from which Mr Depp\u2019s defamation claims stemmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the First Amendment, the precise words [of a given statement] are closely scrutinized,\u201d she said. \u201cHere, Amber Heard said only that she was a public figure representing domestic violence. In my view, this means that if even she was a domestic violence victim even once, the statement is true, and the case is over. She did not have to win that she was a victim of multiple incidents, or even significant incidents. Just domestic violence of some kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Bloom highlighted the fact that Ms Heard \u201cnever even named\u201d Mr Depp in the op-ed, which means \u201cthe appellate court may say the comment was not specific enough to overcome her First Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the three statements in Mr Depp\u2019s lawsuit is the op-ed\u2019s headline, which is another potential issue in Ms Bloom\u2019s view.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Ms Heard[] was found to have defamed him based on a headline that she did not write, but merely retweeted,\u201d she said. \u201cThis verdict, if upheld, would cause major First Amendment problems for the millions of tweeps who RT articles all day long. Are they to be held liable for defamation if the article is inaccurate?\u201d<\/p>\n
Damages<\/p>\n
Ms Bloom also saw possible problems in the ways in which jurors awarded damages: After they first announced they had a verdict, they were sent back, as it appeared they had omitted to award some or all of the necessary damages. They returned shortly afterwards having awarded Mr Depp $15m and Ms Heard $2m. (Judge Penney Azcarate adjusted the damages awarded to Mr Depp to conform to a state cap; he has actually been awarded $10.35m.)<\/p>\n
The timing of how the damages were awarded, to Ms Bloom, \u201cseems very slapdash\u201d, and is an issue she would raise on appeal.<\/p>\n
Possible evidentiary issues<\/p>\n
Mr Weber pointed to statements made by Ms Bredehoft in interviews after the trial in seeking to outline possible strategies for Ms Heard\u2019s legal team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arguments on appeal are focused on what Heard believes are incorrect legal rulings by the judge. That is why making objections and motions during the course of the trial is so important to preserve these issues for appeal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on Elaine Bredehoft’s comments after the verdict, it seems they will be focusing on evidence that was \u2018suppressed\u2019 at trial, such as medical records, and perhaps arguing prejudicial evidence from [Mr Depp] was allowed to be introduced. It also seems [Ms Heard\u2019s team] took issue with the fact that the UK ruling, where a judge found multiple instances of abuse by [Mr Depp], could not be presented to the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Depp sued The Sun\u2019s publishing company in 2018 over a headline which had called him a \u201cwife beater\u201d. A judge ruled against him in the UK case in 2020.<\/p>\n
Ms Heard\u2019s attorneys \u201ccould also argue there were problems with the jury instructions\/jury form,\u201d Mr Weber added.<\/p>\n
Ms Ahouraian underlined the fact that \u201can appellate judge does not retry the facts or question the jury’s verdict\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cAn appellate judge looks at whether there was a legal error that resulted in an unfair ruling, for example, if the judge made a serious mistake such as excluding evidence that was relevant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Ms Heard]\u2019s lawyers contend that relevant evidence that could have affected the outcome of the case was excluded. Some of this evidence made it into the UK trial against The Sun, which [Mr Depp] lost, and didn’t make it into this trial, which makes her point understandable, but the laws there are of course different.\u201d<\/p>\n
An \u2018inconsistent\u2019 verdict<\/p>\n
In an interview with BBC Newsnight, Ms Bloom described the verdict in Depp v Heard as \u201cinconsistent\u201d, because of the way in which jurors found that both Mr Depp and Ms Heard were defamed.<\/p>\n
Jurors found that Mr Depp was defamed in Ms Heard\u2019s op-ed in which she describes herself as \u201ca public figure representing domestic abuse\u201d, but also determined that Ms Heard was defamed in a statement by Adam Waldman (a former lawer for Mr Depp) calling some of Ms Heard\u2019s claims \u201ca hoax\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can it be that Amber Heard was defamed when Johnny Depp\u2019s lawyer said that her allegations were a hoax, and yet Johnny Depp was also defamed when she said she was representative of domestic violence?\u201d Ms Bloom asked on the programme. \u201cI think that\u2019s inconsistent, and you can\u2019t have an inconsistent verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Weber expressed doubt as to whether this could prove to be solid grounds for an appeal, because \u201cusually appeals are not about the jury\u2019s decision per se\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the specific statement which jurors found defamed Ms Heard. It was a statement in which Mr Waldman said: \u201cQuite simply this was an ambush, a hoax. They set Mr Depp up by calling the cops, but the first attempt didn\u2019t do the trick. The officers came to the penthouses, thoroughly searched and interviewed, and left after seeing no damage to face or property. So Amber and her friends spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight under the direction of a lawyer and publicist, and then placed a second call to 911.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Mr Weber, the verdict isn\u2019t necessarily inconsistent. \u201cThe jurors basically said we don\u2019t believe [Ms Heard] was telling the truth about her experience with Johnny Depp, namely being an abuse survivor, but we also believe that [Mr Depp]\u2019s lawyer, who was acting as his agent, went too far and falsely stated that [Ms Heard] and her friends staged the scene of an alleged attack,\u201d he said. \u201cThey could believe Heard was not actually hit in the face with a cell phone as she claimed in May 2016, but also not think her friends helped to create a hoax coverup attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
The jury<\/p>\n
Jurors weren\u2019t sequestered during the seven weeks of the trial. They were instructed not to read up on the case nor do any outside research, but the length of the proceedings, coupled with the fact that it aired on television and was overwhelmingly discussed online, has raised questions over whether jurors could feasibly have remained isolated from any content related to the trial.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Ms Heard\u2019s team] could even try to show that since the jury was not sequestered that they were exposed to all the Depp fans and media scrutiny and that tainted the verdict,\u201d Mr Weber said, adding that this seems \u201clike it will be a major issue for [Ms Heard]\u2019s team on appeal\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn one hand, sure you can ask how they could not have been exposed and tainted by the coverage, the crowds, social media,\u201d Mr Weber said. \u201cOn the other hand, that is an assumption. They were instructed not to view any outside material or watch anything about the trial. Unless a juror does an interview and says something about this, or unless [Ms Heard]\u2019s team can present evidence of juror misconduct, right now that is a speculative argument and is unlikely to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Ahouraian highlighted with the judge\u2019s decision not to sequester the jury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes sense that the jury on a highly publicized case like this should be sequestered, not just \u2018instructed\u2019 to not go on the Internet or talk to anyone about the case,\u201d she said. \u201cThat isn\u2019t realistic in a case like this: People go home to their families, and the case is everywhere. I’m sure that, giving the jury the benefit of the doubt, perhaps when someone was checking their email or something seemingly innocuous, some information popped up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Ms Ahouraian acknowledged this possibility, and the fact that it \u201ccould have heavily swayed the outcome and made the trial unfair\u201d, she\u2019s not certain it would constitute a legal mistake, \u201csince I don’t know if anyone could have predicted the level of attention on social media and the vitriol people have directed at [Ms Heard].\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, if a juror actually did look online, and actually did hear or see something despite the judge’s order, then that could be grounds for a mistrial,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Ms Bloom suggested that potential issues with the jury could lead to an appear or even to a new trial, but acknowledged similar difficulties.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe would have to prove that interference, which would be challenging,\u201d she said. \u201cPerhaps a juror will talk about this in a press interview. I will be watching for that. Stay tuned!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After Johnny Depp largely prevailed in his defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard, her attorney Elaine Bredehoft announced her client \u201cabsolutely\u201d intends to appeal. The jury of five men and two women announced on Wednesday (1 June) it had found that Ms Heard defamed Mr Depp on three statements. Jurors also found that Ms Heard was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n