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Amber Heard has sought to appeal against the verdict in her multimillion-dollar US defamation lawsuit against ex-husband Johnny Depp. The Aquaman actress has argued that the result will have a “chilling” effect on other women.

Lawyers for the 36-year-old have said the case “”should never have gone to trial” in a new update.

They went on to criticise the decision to allow it to go ahead in Fairfax, in Virginia.

Amber sued Johnny over a 2018 article she wrote for the Washington Post about her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse.

Johnny’s lawyers said her words falsely accused him of being an abuser, despite her not mentioning his name.

Back in June, a jury at Fairfax County Court returned a verdict in his favour and he was awarded 10.3 million dollars (£8.43 million) for damage to his reputation.

In documents filed to the Virginia Court of Appeals and obtained by the PA news agency, Amber’s lawyers said the trial court had “erred” several times.

They read: “The trial court erroneously refused to dismiss this action on the ground of forum non conveniens, based on its mistaken conclusion that Depp’s claims arose in Virginia because the Washington Post’s servers are located here.

“The trial court also erred in overruling Heard’s demurrer (objection), in which she argued that the challenged statements are non-actionable expressions of opinion and are not reasonably capable of conveying the alleged defamatory implication.

“That holding, if allowed to stand, undoubtedly will have a chilling effect on other women who wish to speak about abuse involving powerful men.”

The documents added: “This case also should never have gone to trial because another court had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions.”

More to follow…

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