Amber Heard appeal – latest: No settlement as actor hints at Johnny Depp ruling challenge

Amber Heard told Savannah Guthrie in her interview on NBC’s Dateline that a “binder” of notes taken by her therapist could have impacted the verdict in the defamation case with Johnny Depp.

Ms Heard said she wished the jury had been allowed to see her therapist’s notes which she said dated back to near the start of the former couple’s relationship and documented the alleged abuse she suffered.

“There’s a binder worth of years of notes dating back to 2011 from the very beginning of my relationship that were taken by my doctor, who I was reporting the abuse to,” she told Ms Guthrie.

“Her notes represented years of real-time explanations of what was going on.”

In the notes, shared with Dateline, the therapist had written things like “He hit her, threw her on floor” and “He threw her against a wall and threatened to kill her”.

Mr Depp has denied ever abusing Ms Heard.

The judge did not allow the jury to see the notes at trial, ruling them inadmissible in court.

Johnny Depp reportedly confided in an influencer who was covering his trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, according to Jessica Reed Kraus, who goes by the username @houseinhabit on Instagram.

The social media influencer shared daily updates throughout the six-week defamation trial to with her more than 900,000 followers. On Tuesday, Ms Kraus claimed in a post shared to Substack that she spoke with Depp on the same day that the trial began, on 11 April.

“On the other end of the line the greeting that booms through the phone is a vibration that needs no introduction,” she wrote. “Johnny Depp, voice bathed in slow southern charm, greets me with ‘hello.’”

According to Insider, Ms Kraus went on in the post to recall how the Pirates of the Caribbean star allegedly told her that he trusted her, writing: “‘I don’t know you’ he says, ‘but I know, just by the words you use and the aesthetic in your work, that I trust you.’”

Read the full scoop from The Independent’s Chelsea Ritschel below:

Earlier this month, while being interviewed on Good Morning America just days after Johnny Depp emerged victorious in his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard, lawyers for the Pirates of the Caribbean actor indicated their team had floated a deal to her that would spare her from paying millions she owes her ex-husband.

ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked lawyers Ben Chew and Camille Vasquez during their first of two interviews with the network if Mr Depp would forego the damages if Ms Heard dropped her appeal, to which Mr Chew said the case was “never about money” for his client.

“You have said that the goal was not to impoverish Ms Heard – is it possible that we could see a settlement where she foregoes the appeal in return for Mr Depp waving any monetary damages?” the host asked the lawyers.

Mr Chew said he couldn’t speak about his private conversations with Mr Depp but noted that the actor testified, and that the lawyers said in their closing statement.

Read the full report from The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander below:

Johnny Depp emerged victorious in his defamation case against his ex-wife and fellow actor Amber Heard following three days of deliberations by the jury, who also handed Heard a partial win in her countersuit.

In total, the jury awarded Depp $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages, while Heard was awarded $2m in compensatory damages.

Lawyers for the actors are schedueld to meet in court on Friday for a possible settlement if the actors decide not to drag their legal battle further, though neither Depp or Heard is required to be at the Virginia court in-person for the hearing.

Judge Penney Azcarate, who was overseeing the trial, has yet to enter the verdict into the docket, and has until Friday to so unless both parties reach a settlement in the case that spurred a media frenzy in the weeks that it was televised.

The judge might accept oral arguments from each side over the jury verdict and if they don’t agree to a settlement, Judge Azcarate will enter the verdict, Insider reported.

After 21 days, the case will then move to the Court of Appeals of Virginia and both parties will have 30 days to file a notice of appeal.

Continue reading the full story from Alisha Rahaman Sarkar below:

After Johnny Depp prevailed in his defamation lawsuit again Amber Heard, her attorney told the press that her client “absolutely” intends to appeal.

In a sitdown interview with NBC News, Elaine Bredehoft concluded that her client has “some excellent grounds” for appealing, noting that she will “absolutely not” be able to pay the lump sum that the court has ruled her to.

Following this revelation, The Independent tapped the expertise of three attorneys about what possible grounds Ms Heard has for an appeal, or even a new trial. They included Lisa Bloom of The Bloom Firm, whose clients have included Janice Dickinson, Mischa Barton, and several victims of Jeffrey Epstein; Jesse Weber, a host and attorney at the Law & Crime network; and Mitra Ahouraian, an entertainment attorney in Beverly Hills who represents clients from the entertainment industry.

One point that the attorneys raised that Ms Heard could pursue as legal recourse was the point that jurors in the Fairfax, Virginia trial weren’t sequestered during the seven weeks the hearings dragged on for.

They were instructed not to read up on the case nor do any outside research, but the length of the proceedings, coupled with the fact that it aired on television and was overwhelmingly discussed online, has raised questions over whether jurors could feasibly have remained isolated from any content related to the trial.

“[Ms Heard’s team] could even try to show that since the jury was not sequestered that they were exposed to all the Depp fans and media scrutiny and that tainted the verdict,” Mr Weber said, adding that this seems “like it will be a major issue for [Ms Heard]’s team on appeal”.

Continue reading what other possible avenues Ms Heard’s legal team could pursue, as reported by The Independent’s Clémence Michallon.