Lawyers representing actress Amber Heard have made a formal request for the verdict in her case against Johnny Depp to be thrown out.
In a 43-page memorandum filed on Friday (July 1), Ms Heard's lawyers argued that the final ruling should be entirely set aside, along with the $10m she was ordered to pay Depp in damages, which they called "inconsistent and irreconcilable”.
The legal team have requested a new trial, saying that the verdict was not supported by evidence.
"Mr. Depp presented no evidence that Ms. Heard did not believe she was abused,” the attorneys wrote.
"Therefore, Mr. Depp did not meet the legal requirements for actual malice, and the verdict should be set aside."
One of Heard's lawyers, Elaine Bredehoft, said that Depp's legal team rested its case on "solely on a defamation by implication theory" and that they abandoned "any claims that Ms. Heard’s statements were actually false".
Heard was found liable on three claims of defamation following the trial which concluded at the start of June.
The actress' legal team also alleged that a juror had not undergone proper vetting and asked the court to "investigate improper juror service" while querying whether the individual should have been admitted to the jury in the first place.
They claim that the juror was born in 1970, despite court officials listing their birth year as 1945.
“This discrepancy raises the question whether Juror 15 actually received a summons for jury duty and was properly vetted by the court to serve on the jury,” the lawyers wrote.
Ben Chew, Depp's lead attorney, responded to the motion in a statement issued to Courthouse News, saying that the lengthy memorandum was what they were expecting and "no more substantive" but "just longer".
The trial found that both celebrities were guilty of defaming each other, however Depp very much came out as the winner in terms of damages.
He was awarded $10.35 million in damages from Heard, while she was awarded just $2 million in damages from him. Therefore, Heard was left owing Depp a sizeable $8.35million. Immediately following the verdict, Heard said that she could not afford the damages and would be appealing the ruling.
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