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Amber Heard to appeal $10M judgment in Johnny Depp defamation case

Amber Heard is appealing the defamation verdict she lost almost two months ago to ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Attorneys representing Heard filed a notice of appeal on Thursday in Fairfax County, Virginia. According to The Associated Press, the document notifies the Virginia Court of Appeals that Heard intends to appeal the judgment as well as rulings the judge made after the verdict, including rejecting Heard’s request to set aside the verdict and dismiss the lawsuit or order a new trial.

The three-page filing was made available by Deadline.

Shortly after the filing, Heard’s spokesperson released a statement:

“We believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment. We are therefore appealing the verdict. While we realize today’s filing will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we need to take to ensure both fairness and justice.”

Heard said she was planning to appeal the verdict shortly after the trial in June. She also asked the judge to set aside the judgment and dismiss Depp’s lawsuit or order a new trial, but the judge rejected the motion.

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Depp sued Heard for libel over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post. The opinion piece claimed Heard was a victim of domestic abuse, although it did not name Depp as her alleged abuser.

The jury ordered Heard to pay Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The punitive damages were reduced to $350,000 under a state cap.

Heard was awarded $2 million in her counterclaim against Depp. The countersuit claimed that Heard was defamed by one of Depp’s lawyers.