Amber Heard to pay $10.35 million to Johnny Depp, written order by jury

|HT|

Days after the verdict was announced in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, the written order for Amber to pay Johnny $10.35 million has been passed. She has been held accountable for damaging Johnny Depp's reputation by describing herself as a domestic abuse victim in an op-ed piece she wrote in December 2018. According to AP, judge Penney Azcarate entered a judgment order into the court record after a brief hearing in Fairfax County Circuit Court. She also ordered Johnny to pay Amber $2 million, the jury's award on her counterclaim that she was defamed by one of Johnny's lawyers.

The news agency further reports that during Friday's hearing, the judge said that if Amber appeals, she must post a bond for the full amount of the $10.35 million award while the appeal is pending. The judge's order says both awards are subject to 6% interest per year. The jury had earlier said that Johnny should receive $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the judge reduced the punitive damages award to $350,000 under a state cap. Earlier, Amber's lawyer Elaine Charlson Bredehoft told Today that the actor cannot pay such a hefty amount. When asked if Amber will be able to pay Johnny the said figure, she replied, "Oh no, absolutely not".

She had also said, “She was demonised here. A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed, and it caused the jury to be confused. We weren't allowed to tell them about the UK judgement...There are no damages.”

The verdict was announced on June 1 after a long televised trial of the defamation trial that had both the actors revealing sensational details of their short marriage from 2015 to 2017. The trial was a rage on the internet with fans of the two from across the world taking sides while expressing shock over what one said about the other. Amber has said she plans to appeal the verdict. Johnny had sued Amber over her 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post, in which she called herself “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”

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