Johnny Depp Appeals Amber Heard's $2 Million Counterclaim Win, Argues Verdict Was 'Erroneous'

Johnny Depp's legal team officially filed an appeal of Amber Heard's counterclaim win, arguing that the verdict was "erroneous" and should be overturned.

Back on June 1, a seven-person jury found that Heard, 36, defamed ex-husband Depp, 59, in a 2018 op-ed about domestic violence, though she didn't mention him by name. He won all three of his defamation claims and was awarded more than $10 million in damages. Meanwhile, Heard won one of her three countersuit claims and was awarded $2 million in damages. After she moved to appeal the verdict, Depp's team announced they would appeal her win too.

On Wednesday, his team made the filing in the Virginia Court of Appeals, making a case for why they feel Depp should not be held liable for comments made by his attorney.

The statement in question was made by Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman to the Daily Mail published April 27, 2020, when he claimed Heard and her friends set up Depp by calling the cops with a "hoax" of abuse claims back in 2016. The jury found that Waldman was acting as an agent for Depp when making the comment.

In the court documents, published online by Law & Crime Network, Depp's legal team, led by attorney Benjamin Chew, says despite an "emphatic favorable verdict" for Depp, "the trial court was confronted with a number of novel and complex legal and factual issues, and although the trial court decided the vast majority of those issues sensibly and correctly, a few rulings were erroneous."

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The documents add, "Ms. Heard presented no evidence at trial that Mr. Depp was personally involved in directing or making any of the three Waldman Statements. Indeed, Mr. Depp testified that he had never even seen the Waldman Statements prior to the filing of the Counterclaim in August of 2020."

Depp's team argued that "Mr. Waldman is an independent contractor, whose allegedly tortious conduct is not automatically attributable to Mr. Depp" and "no evidence of Mr. Waldman's actual malice was presented at trial" by Heard's legal team.

"This Court should reverse the judgment on Ms. Heard's Counterclaim as to the April 27 Waldman Statement, but should otherwise affirm the judgment in Mr. Depp's favor," they concluded.

Reps for Heard did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

In August, a rep for Heard announced that the actress changed her legal team for the appeal. Elaine Charlson Bredehoft stepped down while Ben Rottenborn became co-counsel, and she hired David L. Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown of Ballard Spahr to lead.

"When it comes to protecting the fundamental right of Freedom of Speech, we look at the jury's decision — to paraphrase a famous quote — not 'as the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.' A different court warrants different representation, particularly as so much new evidence is now coming to light," her rep said in a statement at the time.

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Judge Penney Azcarate denied Heard's request for a mistrial in July, and after Heard officially appealed the verdict, Depp's legal team announced that they would also be appealing her countersuit verdict.

In a July statement about moving forward with the appeal, a spokesperson for Heard said they "believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment."

"We are therefore appealing the verdict," they added at the time. "While we realize today's filing will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we need to take to ensure both fairness and justice."

Responding to the development, a Depp spokesperson then said in a statement: "The jury listened to the extensive evidence presented during the six-week trial and came to a clear and unanimous verdict that the defendant herself defamed Mr. Depp, in multiple instances. We remain confident in our case and that this verdict will stand."