Amber Heard starts process to get defamation lawsuit overturned

Amber Heard's legal team have begun the process of trying to get the defamation case against their client thrown out.

Amber faced her ex-husband during an explosive trial that spanned six weeks earlier this year. When the verdict came in at the start of June, finding in Depp's favour that his former spouse had defamed him by calling herself "a public figure representing domestic abuse" in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed, her legal team stated that they planned to appeal the ruling.

On 26 June, the lawyers declared their intention to appeal, and on Friday, they filed a 43-page motion on the grounds that the verdict was not supported by evidence.

Her team also allege that a juror had not been properly vetted.

In their filing, the attorneys wrote that Depp "proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms. Heard's statements were actually false".

Depp's lawyer Ben Chew has responded to the motion by releasing a statement to Courthouse News.

"What we expected, just longer, no more substantive," he said.

In June, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor was awarded more than $10 million (£8 million) in damages, which Heard has said she is unable to pay.

The jury also ruled that Depp defamed Heard on one of three counts relating to comments made by his former attorney and she was awarded $2 million (£1.6 million).