
Actress Amber Heard is reportedly planning to appeal the court ruling, which voted in favor of Johnny Depp over Heard's allegations of domestic abuse.
Jury members in the Virginia court ruled in favor of Depp's allegation of three counts of defamation, awarding the Pirates of the Caribbean actor $ 15 million in damages.
Alafair Hall, Heard's spokesman, said the actress planned to appeal the decision, according to the New York Times. So she will seek in a higher court to overturn the decision of a lower court.
Johnny Depp's lawyers convinced the jury that he did not attack Amber Heard and that her allegations of domestic abuse in a Washington Post article slandered her and did so "maliciously" or knowing the allegation was false. The unanimous decision of the jury members ended a seven-week trial, which featured dozens of witnesses and experts weighing whether Depp had abused Heard during their 15-month marriage.
Heard demanded $ 100 million in a counterclaim against Depp, in which she claimed she had been slandered by his press agent, who described her allegations as "an abuse fraud" aimed at profiting from the #MeToo movement. She only made it to one point and was rewarded with $ 2 million.
Lisa Bloom, a high-profile lawyer in the US, predicts that the Heard-Depp case will be decided on appeal. Speaking to BBC Two Newsnight, she said: "I want to stress that this is not the end because most defamation cases are really settled on appeal."
"I think this is an unsustainable decision. How can it be that Amber Heard was slandered by Johnny Depp's lawyer who said her allegations were a hoax and yet Johnny Depp was also slandered when Amber Heard said she was a representative of domestic violence?
Bloom said that "within a year or two, we will have an answer and a more final result in this case."