Amber Heard's Appeal Alleges Multiple Errors in Johnny Depp Trial

Amber Heard has officially appealed the June decision in the defamation case that found a jury mostly siding with her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.

In documents filed in late November, but made public by Deadline on Monday, attorneys for the actress cited more than a dozen errors they allege were committed during the trial. Their claims are that they believe the case should not have been heard in Virginia and that key pieces of evidence against Depp were excluded by the court, among other things.

On June 1, the Fairfax County case ended, and Heard was ordered to pay Depp more than $10 million in the verdict. However, Heard's appeal contends that Depp is a resident of California, and that the incidents that made Heard take out a restraining order against the actor took place in California, not Virginia.

Heard's appeal argues the verdict be reversed or terminated in favor of a new trial.

Depp sued his ex-wife in March 2019 for $50 million over an op-ed published a year earlier by The Washington Post by Heard, in which she said she was a victim of domestic abuse. The newspaper's servers being located in Virginia led to the decision to hold the trial in Fairfax County.

Heard didn't name Depp in the op-ed, but his legal team said that it was obvious she was referring to him. A year later, Heard countersued for $100 million.

The trial was heavily watched across the world, and many social media users dissected each moves of both legal teams. Ultimately, a seven-member jury found that Depp was entitled to $10 million in compensatory damages and punitive damages of $5 million. However, a Virginia state law limits punitive damages to $350,000, which brought the amount to be awarded to Depp to $10.35 million. Meanwhile, the jury also awarded Heard $2 million in damages in her countersuit.

In her appeal, Heard said that the decision from a failed defamation suit Depp brought against United Kingdom tabloid The Sun should have been allowed in their trial. Depp had sued the paper for calling him a "wife beater." Meanwhile, the appeal also states that Heard's communications with medical personnel should not have been excluded.

Heard's attorneys said several other errors were made during the original trial, including that the jury was not given proper instructions about the role of actual malice in the case and that the award was excessive. Another error cited was that Heard did not write the online version of The Washington Post headline that was shown during the hearings.

Heard and Depp filed initial appeal paperwork in July, but Depp's full filing didn't come until early November.

Newsweek reached out to the legal teams for Heard and Depp for comment.

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