Hollywood actor Johnny Depp may appeal the UK court case following the US verdict in 2020. After losing a UK libel lawsuit against the Sun newspaper, Depp won a similar lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Hurd in a US courtroom. Many legal experts believe that Depp should appeal the UK case now, given the new evidence and witness testimonies available at the time of the 2020 trial.
A UK barrister, known as Mr Black Belt Barrister, has uploaded a video on YouTube urging people to help reopen the UK appeal in the Johnny Depp case. The video received over 75,000 views and sparked social media debate. One user commented that the UK judge made questionable judgments, ignored numerous pieces of evidence, and disregarded audio evidence in favor of written witness testimony. This has caused Depp years of his life, possibly 100+ million in lost income, work contracts, legal fees, irreputable damage to his reputation, and damaged relationships with friends and family.
If Depp can successfully get this ruling appealed, he could potentially receive one of the biggest legal payouts in history by a media giant. Users in the comments are adamant that the decision should be appealed, and Johnny stands a good chance at winning the case.
In 2021, Johnny Depp was refused permission to appeal against a high court ruling that he assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard in 2020. The judge based his verdict on lies, and the Sun’s article published in April 2018 was the focus of a three-week trial in July last year. The 57-year-old sued News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the Sun, over the accusation that he was violent towards Misheard. The newspaper maintained its article was accurate, but the judge found Mr. Depp had assaulted Miss Heard on a dozen of occasions and put her in fear for her life three times.
Mr. Depp announced he had been asked by Warner Brothers to resign from his role in the Harry Potter spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts. The actor asked the Court of Appeal for permission to challenge the ruling, but a judge refused his application and said his appeal had no real prospect of success. A re-trial was ordered at a hearing a week after this.
Mr. Depp’s lawyers asked the court to consider fresh evidence relating to Miss Heard’s claim that she gave her $7 million divorce settlement to charity. Mr. Depp’s barrister andrew Kaladaat QC told the court that the claim was a calculated and manipulative lie after the couple divorced in 2016. Miss Heard said she would split the $7 million between the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union, but Mr. Caldecott said that the hospital wrote to Mr. Depp’s business advisor in 2019 to say she had not made any payments. The court heard $100,000 was donated to the hospital and $450,000 to the ACL, but Miss Heard claims she made a further $500,000.
New evidence presented by an ACL representative in the 2022 case has shown that Miss Heard did not fulfill her pledge at all. However, Anna Will Ansky QC representing the Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers said the new evidence would not have any impact on the result of the libel trial.
The court refused permission for Mr. Depp to appeal, and it is believed that he stands a chance this time. The U.S. case victory hurts lawyers in the U.S., as the perceived wisdom is that it is much easier to win a defamation case in the U.K. than in the U.S., where the enshrinement of free speech in the first amendment of the constitution is a sacrosanct.
Mark Stevens, an international media lawyer, said that the U.S. case was heard before a jury while the UK trial was heard before a judge, which allowed depp’s lawyers to focus on Hurd tactics. He also noted that the use of Darvo tactics when the alleged offender denies the behavior attacks the accuser and reverses the roles of the victim and offender was not confined to the courts.
In conclusion, it is fair to say that Johnny Depp has grounds for an appeal and may be granted another chance at the U.K. trial that he previously lost.