Amber Heard’s attorneys are asking the court docket to declare a ‘mistrial’ after shedding her defamation case towards Johnny Depp, amid claims of a juror ‘error’.
Final month June, the 36-year-old Aquaman 2 star was discovered by a unanimous seven-person jury in Fairfax, Virginia, to have defamed her Pirates Of The Caribbean actor ex-husband in a Washington Publish article by which she claimed she was a sufferer of home abuse.
Whereas Depp wasn’t named within the article, his attorneys argued the piece was defamatory towards the actor and the court docket awarded him $15million (£12m) in compensatory and punitive damages.
Heard received one depend of her $100m (£83m) countersuit, and was given damages of $2m (£1.6m), which means she has to pay the 59-year-old $8m (£6.6m).
Nonetheless, after beforehand alleging that there have been points with the jury’s credibility, now Heard’s attorneys are alleging that the improper juror was seated on the trial.
Deadline reported that a 77-year-old particular person was referred to as up for jury obligation however seems to reside on the similar deal with as a 52-year-old with ‘the identical surname’, who was the juror truly seated all through the trial.
The submitting from Heard’s workforce reads: ‘Ms. Heard had a proper to depend on the essential safety, as prescribed by the Virginia Code, that the jurors on this trial could be people who have been truly summoned for jury obligation.
‘On this case, it seems that Juror No. 15 was not, in truth, the identical particular person as listed on the jury panel. Thus, the 52-year-old- (redacted) sitting on the jury for six weeks was by no means summoned for jury obligation on April 11 and didn't ‘seem within the record,’ as required.’
The submitting went on to say that because of the alleged mistake, the ‘due course of’ of Heard had been ‘compromised’ and subsequently claimed that a mistrial must be declared, which might render the preliminary trial and its consequence invalid.
It continued: ‘Ms. Heard’s due course of was subsequently compromised. Underneath these circumstances, a mistrial must be declared, and a brand new trial ordered.’
The information comes simply days after Heard’s workforce additionally alleged that Depp was not entitled to any damages he was awarded as a result of ‘there isn't a proof of injury to Mr. Depp’s repute attributable to Mrs. Heard’s Op-Ed’.
Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft beforehand confirmed that they'd be interesting the choice, and mentioned that the Justice League actress was unable to pay the $8m awarded to her former companion.
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