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Amber Heard appeals for new defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp

Amber Heard has appealed for new defamation trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp.

The actress, 36, filed her appeal earlier this month – arguing the exclusion of notes from therapy sessions in which she reported she was being abused resulted in an unfair trial.

The evidence had been ruled out as hearsay by Fairfax County, Virginia Judge Penney Azcarate.

Credit: FayesVision/WENN.com

In a 68-page document dated November 23, Amber’s lawyers wrote: “The trial court improperly prevented the jury from considering several separate instances in which Heard reported Depp’s abuse to a medical professional.”

“If not reversed, the trial court’s exclusion of contemporaneous reports of domestic abuse to medical professionals will make it more difficult for other abuse victims to prove allegations of abuse, and likely deter them from coming forward.”

In June, a jury of five men and two women found Amber guilty of defaming Johnny in an op-ed for the Washington Post, which was published in December 2018.

Johnny, 59, launched a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife in 2019, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in the op-ed.

Following a six-week trial and 13 hours of deliberations, the jury sided with Depp and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages, and a further $5 million in punitive damages.

However, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages to $350,000, which is the State of Virginia’s legal limit, resulting in total damages of $10.4 million awarded to Johnny.

Attorneys for Amber have argued the trial should have taken place in California, where the former couple once lived together — and not in Virginia, where the Washington Post houses its servers.

Virginia was an “entirely inconvenient forum with no connection to Depp or any meaningful connection to his claims,” the filing states.

Johnny and Amber The Rum Diary

The case “should never have gone to trial because another court had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions,” her lawyers added, referencing the 2020 UK ruling in favour of The UK Sun – which Johnny had sued for calling him a wife-beater.

Johnny has already filed his own appeal in the case, claiming the one count of defamation that Amber won at the trial was “erroneous.”

“The jury’s emphatic favorable verdict on all three defamatory statements alleged in his complaint fully vindicated Mr. Depp and restored his reputation,” the filing said.

A group of judges will issue a ruling on both claims, and each party will then have a chance to appeal once more.

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