When is Amber Heard’s appeal over losing Johnny Depp trial?

On Wednesday 1 June, the $50-million defamation case brought by Johnny Depp against Amber Heard for an opinion piece she published in The Washington Post came to an end. The court’s decision was much lower than initially demanded by Depp’s legal team as it ordered Heard to pay $10.35 million to him in damages. There was also, though, a requirement on Depp to pay $2 million to his former wife for articles written by his publicist in The Daily Mail.

So that is that, right? It appears not.

In related news:

Amber Heard readies appeal against Johnny Depp

The responses to the judgement from either party were clearly contrasting. Depp, who had surprised everyone by heading off to England after closing statements had been made on the Friday to perform on stage with Jeff Beck, took to Instagram to express his gratitude to the jury saying that he was “truly humbled” and explained that he had been motivated to bring the case forward after his life, “the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me,” changed after Heard’s article was published.

For her part, Heard also hit up social media - where most of this ugly trial has played out for the last couple of months - to give her view, saying that she was very “disappointed” and worries what the impacts could be for other women who come forward to speak out against their domestic abusers.

She added that she felt her voice was not able to break through the “disproportionate power and influence of her ex-husband.”

And so to the next step for the actress.

On Thursday, an attorney for the Aquaman star confirmed that Heard would be appealing the jury’s decision, saying that “she has some excellent grounds for it.” Although there had been talk as we awaited the jury’s verdict of a potential appeal if she lost, the general sense was that this would be difficult unless significant new evidence came into play.

So up stepped Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, speaking on NBC, to announce that the appear would be going ahead stating that Depp’s team was “able to suppress an enormous amount of evidence” that was allowed in the libel case in Britain, which Depp lost.

Depp had sued British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife beater” but a London High Court judge found that Depp had abused Heard at least a dozen times. Due to legal process, Heard’s lawyers were not allowed to tell the jury that information in the Virginia case, Bredehoft said.

“So what did Depp’s team learn from this? Demonize Amber, and suppress the evidence,” Bredehoft said, although not confirming how long it may be until we see the official appeal.

“They were able to suppress the medical records, which were very, very significant, because they showed a pattern going all the way back to 2012 of Amber reporting this to her therapist, for example. We had significant amount of texts, including from Mr. Depp’s assistant, saying ‘When I told him he kicked you, he cried, he is so sorry.’ That didn’t come in.”

“She was demonized here,” Bredehoft added. “A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed, and it caused the jury to be confused.”

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Another issue Bredehoft pointed to was having cameras in the courtroom, something Depp’s team had asked for and that Heard’s lawyers were against.

“So not only did we have a group of Depp fans that were there every day - 100 were allowed in, they lined up at 1 o’clock in the morning for their wristbands to be in that courtroom - but we had everything on camera, and we had tremendous social media that was very, very, very much against Amber.”

During the trial, Depp said he never hit or sexually abused Heard and argued that she was the one who became violent during their relationship. Heard said she slapped Depp but only in defense of herself or her sister.

As the ripples continue to be created following the decision of the trial, we are maintaining a close eye on how they affect either party, how others are reacting and what could be next for the two actors.