Attorney Lisa Bloom believes we have not seen the end of the Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial, and that the case will be decided on appeal.
Ms Bloom, whose clients have included Janice Dickinson (in her allegations against Bill Cosby), actor Mischa Barton (in a revenge porn lawsuit), and Harvey Weinstein (for whom Ms Bloom was an early advisor before resigning) spoke to BBC Newsnight following the verdict in the defamation case.
Jurors announced on Wednesday (1 June) they had reached a decision in the case opposing Mr Depp and Ms Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. They found that Ms Heard defamed Mr Depp on three statements and that Ms Heard was defamed in one of three statements at the centre of her counter-suit. Mr Depp was awarded $10.35m in damages and Ms Heard was awarded $2m.
“I want to emphasize that this is not the end, because most defamation cases are really decided on appeal,” Ms Bloom told Newsnight, adding that she sees “a lot of issues on appeal” in the Depp v Heard case.
She called the verdict “inconsistent” due to the way in which the jury found that Mr Depp and Ms Heard were both defamed.
Specifically, the jury found that Mr Depp was defamed in Ms Heard’s op-ed in which she describes herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”, but also found that Ms Heard was defamed in a statement by Adam Waldman (a former lawer for Mr Depp) calling some of Ms Heard’s claims “a hoax”.
“How can it be that Amber Heard was defamed when Johnny Depp’s lawyer said that her allegations were a hoax, and yet Johnny Depp was also defamed when she said she was representative of domestic violence?” Ms Bloom asked. “I think that’s inconsistent, and you can’t have an inconsistent verdict.”
Ms Bloom also pointed out that one of the three statements found by the jury to be defamatory is the article’s headline, which Ms Heard “did not write”. “She retweeted it, but she didn’t write it,” Ms Bloom added. “I retweet articles all the time. Am I responsible if there’s a false statement within that article? Generally, we think people are not responsible for that.”
Ms Bloom said she believes that “in a year or two” the case will receive a “more definitive answer”.
Ms Heard’s attorney told the Today show that Ms Heard “absolutely” intends to appeal the verdict, arguing that “a number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed”.
