Johnny Depp allowed libel suit against Amber Heard in Virginia

Although he has lost his legal battle with his ex-wife Amber Heard in the United Kingdom that has reportedly caused problems in his acting career, Johnny Depp will now get a second libel trial to show he didn’t physically abuse her, reports confirm.

On Tuesday, a Virginia judge reportedly ruled that the decision last November in Depp’s suit against the publisher of The Sun shouldn’t impact his second case against Heard over an opinion-editorial piece published in the Washington Post.

Amber Heard is being sued in that latter case over a December 2018 column where had written, “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.”

Add WION as a Preferred Source

This suit in Virginia was expected to go to trial first, but owing to multiple delays, Depp’s U.K. case went on trail instead.
In the U.K., the actor has sued over a news item that had labelled him a 'wife beater'. After a trial that lasted weeks, Judge Andrew Nicol found substantial truth to the article in The Sun, specifically with regards to 14 incidents that happened during the troubled marriage, reports said.

The ruling, which Depp was unsuccessful in getting overturned through appeal, left him in the atypical position of arguing he didn’t get everything he wanted in the country, which has allegedly been the case for libel tourism since the burden of proof is on the defendant and not the complainant. Also, public figures needn’t show actual malice, says a report.

Amber Heard, in turn, has argued that the Virginia court should recognize the U.K. court judgment, and since both actions centered on whether Depp was a domestic abuser, declare the matter already adjudicated.

In an opinion on Tuesday, Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate reportedly rejected Heard’s motion because of the lack of privity. While Heard may have argued that her interests were aligned with The Sun, the judge says those interests weren’t identical.

"The Sun‘s interests were based on whether the statements the newspaper published were false," she has reportedly written. "(Heard’s) interests relate to whether the statements she published were false."

In examining whether the U.S. and U.K. have judicial systems to the extent that Depp shouldn’t be in a state to re-litigate his claim of not being a domestic abuser, the judge later notes that Heard wasn’t a party in the U.K. case and wasn’t subject to the same discovery rules.

"In fact, Defendant could not have been a named defendant to the U.K. litigation because her allegedly defamatory statements were made after the U.K. action commenced," the judge added.

Last month, Heard’s lawyer argued that if Virginia court didn’t accept the U.K. judgment, there would be nothing to stop Depp from bringing new cases anytime any publication repeated words: that he was a 'wife beater'.

"If anything, upholding English libel judgments in the United States would create the chilling effect and could create a dangerous precedent," the judge wrote.

Reportedly, the trial is scheduled for early next year and will also examine Heard’s counterclaims.