Recent developments have led Amber Heard to want a new defamation trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp. This comes nearly five months after the judgement. She claims the prior court case in Virginia, which she lost to the Pirates of the Caribbean actor, was conducted improperly. The appeal Jay Ward Brown and David L. Axelrod filed on Amber's behalf also state that the ruling will have a "chilling effect" on women who desire to speak up for themselves from powerful men.
Deadline reports that the new appeal filed by Amber Heard's attorneys Jay Ward Brown and David L. Axelrod to the court states, “The trial court erroneously refused to dismiss this action on the ground of forum non-conveniens, based on its mistaken conclusion that Depp’s claims arose in Virginia because the Washington Post’s servers are located here. The trial court also erred in overruling Heard’s demurrer, in which she argued that the challenged statements are non-actionable expressions of opinion and are not reasonably capable of conveying the alleged defamatory implication.”
“That holding, if allowed to stand, undoubtedly will have a chilling effect on other women who wish to speak about abuse involving powerful men”, the 68-page record continued. Amber's attorneys made various assertions in their appeal that the trial was conducted improperly.
According to the application, “This case also should never have gone to trial because another court had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions. After Depp filed this case, the United Kingdom High Court of Justice ruled in a separate defamation action brought by Depp that Heard’s abuse allegations were true.”
