Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have heard the jury’s verdict in their libel cases a week ago, but the two have not really been able to let go. More than a week after the decision that Depp will receive 10 million dollars from his ex and Heard 2 million dollars from the actor, the former couple is clearly still working on it. This has happened in the meantime.
The verdict was only just announced or both Depp and Heard had already given an official response. As expected, Heard was disappointed and Depp happy.
Soon after, it became clear that the actress is considering an appeal, although that has not yet been officially announced by her or her lawyers. Depp wouldn’t intend to, which legal experts say wouldn’t make sense given the outcome.
The same experts say to Time Heard would do well to appeal the ruling. Her own lawyer, in an interview with NBC I have already said that it will be very difficult for Heard to cough up the 10 million dollars.
An appeal also costs money. But with $10 million to pay, it’s smart to try anyway, says a lawyer specializing in civil law against Time.
If Heard does indeed appeal, the chance that it can be watched live is a lot smaller. In an appeal, three judges would determine the verdict rather than jurors.
A lawyer specializing in family law says the case would really turn out differently, although the outcome could be the same. “The bulk of an appeal would be about judicial arguments, with an audience of judges. Now we’ve looked at a lot of theater in a case where the audience was a jury of ordinary people.”
Heard’s attorney has said it was basically impossible for the jury to sit in court without bias. The seven jury members were instructed not to watch any news programs, but according to lawyer Elaine Bredehoft, that doesn’t really matter.
“They went home every night, those people have families and those families are on social media. There’s no way they weren’t affected.” Depp’s lawyers have not responded to Bredehoft’s statements.
Depp received incredible support on social media, while Heard was heavily lashed out. Where the hashtag I stand with Amber Heard has been viewed about 27.2 million times on TikTok, #JusticeForJohnnyDepp at 20.3 billion times.
Heard already said during the trial that she was seriously threatened and several videos can be found on Instagram in which short fragments of statements by Heard are criticized. This also happened with Depp, but to a much lesser extent.
In fact, Depp is so happy with the support on social media that he joined TikTok this week. The actor has managed to amass about eight million followers in about 48 hours. In his first post, he shared a video that includes images of fans waiting for him in court with statements of support. In the accompanying text, he thanked everyone for their support. The post has since been viewed more than 15 million times.
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