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Amber Heard’s legal professionals have requested that the decision in her defamation trial be tossed.
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Heard’s crew cited a loss of proof and an “over the top” quantity of damages amongst their causes.
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Heard’s crew additionally alleged that probably the most jurors had now not been correctly vetted going into the trial.
Amber Heard’s legal professionals filed a 53-page report on Friday, asking that the jury’s verdict towards her within the high-profile defamation lawsuit together with her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, be tossed.
The memorandum requests that the jury’s verdict to be put aside on all 3 counts that Heard used to be discovered answerable for, to brush aside Depp’s grievance, and for claims {that a} juror assumed a false identification to be investigated.
Within the report, Heard’s legal professionals Elaine Bredehoft and Ben Rottenborn, argue that there used to be inadequate proof to improve Depp’s claims that Heard had defamed him. In addition they asserted that the “jury’s compensatory and punitive injury award had been over the top as a question of regulation,” announcing that Depp best deserved “reputational damages.”
Heard and Depp had been discovered to have defamed each and every different in June. The jury awarded Heard $2 million in damages and awarded Depp $15 million — $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The pass judgement on later lessened the punitive damages to $350,000, mentioning limits set by means of state regulation.
Following the trial, Heard’s legal professional stated in June that the actor would not have the ability to pay the financial penalty awarded to Depp.
Additionally integrated in Friday’s memo used to be an allegation that the identification of a jury member — Juror 15 — had now not been adequately established whilst the jury used to be being assembled, which will have resulted in Heard being denied due procedure within the case.
“The courtroom will have to examine whether or not Juror 15 correctly served at the jury,” the report learn. Heard’s crew argued that the designated Juror 15 used to be indexed as being born in 1945, however claimed that the Juror 15 who served throughout the trial used to be “obviously born later than 1945.”
“This discrepancy raises the query whether or not Juror 15 in fact gained a summons for jury accountability and used to be correctly vetted by means of the Courtroom to serve at the jury,” learn the report. Consistent with the memo, Heard’s legal professionals requested for “suitable motion” to be taken in line with the result of the investigation.
The legal professionals wrote that, in line with the arguments within the memorandum, the courtroom will have to put aside the jury’s verdict within the case completely, brush aside Depp’s grievance, or order a brand new trial.
In an e-mail to Courthouse Information, Benjamin Chunk, the pinnacle of Depp’s felony crew, stated the movement filed by means of Heard’s crew used to be “what we anticipated, simply longer, not more substantive.”
Heard’s movement to brush aside the decision got here every week after she and Depp failed to succeed in a agreement prior to their June 24 cut-off date — finalizing the jury’s verdict.
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