Amber Heard's Appeal of Defamation Trial SMART But Bound to Fail, Say Legal Experts
A legal expert said that Amber Heard just made a smart and strategic move by filing an appeal - but it does not guarantee success at all.
Heard shrugged off Johnny Depp fans' warning and filed an appeal at the Circuit Court of Fairfax County. Depp, in return, also filed a notice of appeal a day after his ex-wife submitted her documents.
In response to these, Newsweek interviewed two lawyers who both said that the appeal would highly unlikely to be successful.
According to attorney Andrew M. Lieb, the move called the appeal a "smart strategic play." But he noted that it is not a "slam dunk."
"She is arguing improper juror service, but only on a technical basis, and absent a causal showing that the sitting of the juror resulted in bias or prejudice against her, the verdict will not be reversed. Simply, it's a difficult appeal because the Court of Appeals gives deference to the trial judge who already refused an application for a retrial on this issue," Lieb said.
He explained that it gives the "Aquaman" actress the leverage she needs in order to reduce the damages she needs to settle.
Amber Heard's Appeal a Major Failure
In the same news outlet, McLoughlin, O'Hara, Wagner & Kendall LLP's partner Brian Wagner said that it would not be a successful appeal at all.
He disclosed that the Notice of Appeal is just a preliminary step, but Heard needs an actual and perfect appeal to win the case.
"The difficulty in an appeal is not only proving the court erred but also that the error caused a big enough error that the verdict was likely impacted. In short, that is rare and unlikely in this case," he said.
Their comments came after the ex-couple both filed appeals after the defamation trial ended.
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Heard and her team submitted a three-page filing informing the court about her plans to appeal.
The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star's spokesperson responded to this, saying that verdict would not shake the verdict that Heard defamed Depp multiple times.
A spokesperson for Heard, on the other hand, insisted to the news outlet that the court truly made errors that led to an unfair and inconsistent verdict. With the appeal, they reportedly aim to gain fairness and justice to reclaim the actress's glory again.
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