The Lawsuits Thread

[hollyberry]

Thanks so much ForeverYoung for the explanation. I will be hoping things turn out well for him and am just sick about what he has apparently been through.

He's had a bad couple years, no doubt, but he has to clear his name. I wish him all the best.

[AdeleAgain]

I think the relevance of the Musk revelations are (1) to further demonstrate that she was not abused - it would be extraordinarily dangerous behaviour for a victim to have an affair in their abuser's home. (2) It also shows a tendency/pattern of lying.

Bette White's excellent narrative (thanks for putting it here) makes a really good point about how Johnny's team need to show that she's lied - because if she has a pattern of lying it will lead to the judge/jury to the conclusion that her word cannot be trusted. So none of the evidence she provides in her witness statement (if she makes one) can be trusted unless she has additional proof e.g. photos etc. In abuse cases it often goes to the credibility of those involved because there often isn't other compelling evidence (although in this case there seems to be plenty).

I've recently worked on a case of a business dispute where our client's opponent had a history of lying and violent behaviour. The evidence around our client's actual complaint was not completely overwhelming -it was one person's word against another - but because in court the opponent was shown to have such an untrustworthy character, what he said in his defence was dismissed when the judge gave the judgement.

[meeps]

"fighting the good fight" she says - aye, seen from her point of view she of course is, since she's fighting to keep a good man down and saving her own .. skin
Ehm, I am talking about AH's comment when she arrived in London yesterday and was asked about Johnny suing her:

[Ruby Begonia]

Ade- great points above!

[Ruby Begonia]

"fighting the good fight" she says - aye, seen from her point of view she of course is, since she's fighting to keep a good man down and saving her own .. skin
Ehm, I am talking about AH's comment when she arrived in London yesterday and was asked about Johnny suing her.

She's still not denying it, though, is she?

And always the violent wording from her. Like her fists image on Instagram with rings on her fingers like brass knuckles. No shrinking violet.

[ForeverYoung]

Anybody notice Johnny's lawyers make a quote that she alleged after he threw the phone at her he battered her face with an "appendage of his body" ? .

[justintime]

Yes, ForeverYoung, not much in the complaint has made me chuckle, but that little reference sure did!

Also, don’t know if this is new, old, or no news but a recent post on Bye Bye Blackbird’s blog reads as follows:
“Heard’s makeup artist, who has been supporting her for years, has stopped following her on IG.”

http://bybyeblackbird.tumblr.com/

[nebraska]

I am glad Johnny is getting his side heard! But still, this is all very scary. Justice is blind ... the good guys don't always win, and she-who-shall-not-be-named is evil.

[In-too-Depp]

Johnny Depp’s $50M Suit Against Amber Heard Bleeds Into $30M Malpractice Case

Deadline.com
Article by Dominic Patten March 7th 2019

Johnny Depp won’t be heading to court for a trial in his $30 million malpractice action against his ex-lawyers as soon as expected, but his recent $50 million defamation case against Amber Heard reared its head today in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“If you want a two-month continuance, that’s fine,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Terry Green today in an omnibus hearing on the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s nearly year and a half old legal skirmish with Jacob Bloom and his firm.

September 16 has now been set as the trial date, with a final status conference at the beginning of that month.

The trial was originally set for May 6 in downtown L.A. in front of the loquacious Green. Noting his own packed schedule, the judge dismissively commented “the motion to continue the trial never made it into our new e-filing system.”

“You may want to take this to a discovery referee,” Judge Green also told a courtroom filled with a phalanx of attorneys from Depp’s Brown Rudnick LLP team and Bryan Freedman of Freedman + Taitelman LLP and others representing Bloom and his firm. “It is really two bankers boxes full of stuff and that is difficult to say the least,” the LASC judge declared of the latest sets of filings in the convoluted matter that started back in October 2017 as a spin-off of Depp’s $25 million January 2017 suit against TMG, his former business managers.

“We welcome a discovery referee right away,” Freedman said, again noting the defense’s need to see what the actual settlement was in the confidentially settled TMG case last year and the material that informed it.

Of course, today’s hearing comes a week after Depp hit his ex-wife Amber Heard with a $50 million defamation suit that alleged the Aquaman actor’s claims of abuse during their short-lived marriage were a “hoax” intended to “advance her career.” An attorney for Heard called the Virginia filed suit a “frivolous action” that is the “latest of Johnny Depp’s repeated efforts to silence Amber Heard.”

In that wide ranging filing of last week, Depp also noted that Bloom advised him to go ahead with the $7 million divorce settlement with Heard back in 2016.

“We learned that they are taking the position that that the advice from Jacob Bloom to settle the Amber Heard case was wrong advice,” noted Freedman to Judge Bloom, stressing the need for more depositions and documents. Refuting objections by Depp’s lawyers of the difficulty involved in getting such paperwork organized, Freedman also remarked that the attorneys for TMG are more than willing to turn the documents over in a second if given permission by the court

How ever Judge Green ultimately rules, that is now clearly a matter that Depp essentially wants to re-litigate the divorce in not so many words. To that end, he is pivoting off an op-ed that Heard wrote on sexual violence and abuse for the Washington Post in December 2018. That op-ed never actually mentions Johnny Depp by name, but its inference, according to the actor’s lawyers, is the reason why he hasn’t been asked by Disney to join the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot

The document delay tactic that the defense is alleging and actually made up the bulk of the motions before the court today is similar what Depp employed in his now settled multi-million dollar dust-up with his ex-business managers.

“We don’t even have the settlement agreement,” Bloom’s lawyer told the court Thursday, citing an enforced ignorance of the TMG case with over three million pages of documents from that matter and more not being handed over.

As the two sides have argued over discovery in recent months in the malpractice suit, the actor did score a rare legal win in the case last August. Sending jolted lawyers scrambling to get their clients on speed dial all over town, Judge Green granted a motion last summer by Depp’s side to declare invalid the lucrative oral contingency agreement that actor had with Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman LLP for almost 20 years.

Since then, the remainder of the initially October 2017 filed case has been primarily behind closed doors with a barrage of filings on the docket as other legal matter occupied the actor’s time and the trial date gets closer and closer.

However, after several penciled in dates were scraped, Depp did sit for a deposition in the case late last year. Though talk of a settlement have been broached and the required insurance companies involved, it seems that the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald actor is once again seeking to keep the nearly year and half old matter in the courts without actually moving it forward – again, similar to the tactics used in the conflict with the former business managers.

“If they think the information is important, some one is going to have to sit down and read it,” asserted Judge Green to the assembled attorneys towards the end of today’s hearing. Cutting proceedings short, Judge Green promised a detailed ruling in the forthcoming days.

[SnoopyDances]

Interesting, though poorly written, article ITD.

I figured it was Bloom and company that was in possession of the "newly discovered" evidence.
I guess Johnny's new attorneys were able to subpoena the same material either from the condo managers or the courts/lawyers.

[hollyberry]

Anybody notice Johnny's lawyers make a quote that she alleged after he threw the phone at her he battered her face with an "appendage of his body" ? .

Weird choice of words!

[ForeverYoung]

Yes, ForeverYoung, not much in the complaint has made me chuckle, but that little reference sure did!

Also, don’t know if this is new, old, or no news but a recent post on Bye Bye Blackbird’s blog reads as follows:
“Heard’s makeup artist, who has been supporting her for years, has stopped following her on IG.”

http://bybyeblackbird.tumblr.com/

That is very interesting. Come to think of it, I have not seen her long time assistant Savanna around anymore either.

[Judymac]

I knew that she had a good friend who was a makeup artist. I wondered if her injured face was just makeup. I am not a makeup artist but I have done bruises, scars, blood etc for Halloween. It would be very easy for a professional make up artist to fake bruises. I am sure none of the lawyers went up to AH and tried to wipe her "bruises" off.

[Judymac]

Since the report of Musk visiting Heard a month into the marriage at the penthouse seems new and somewhat of a bombshell, I'm thinking that particular tidbit was not viewed/discovered until this year.

I can't find it now, but an Australian source recently posted that Musk was flying into Australia for a weekend during early Pirates filming and sent a message from the plane to Amber about meeting him. So, that was AFTER the LA penthouse video of him visiting late at night while only Johnny was in Australia at first.

Then she and her sister are seen hanging out with Musk at a Miami hotel a month or 2 after she filed for divorce. Then there's that other report from Johnny's friend, Robert Rodriguez, who was directing Heard in 2013's Machete Kills: he was asked to pass along Musk's invitation to meet Heard; Rodriguez did not pass it along, as it was common knowledge Heard was in a relationship with Johnny. Especially since he probably only cast Heard as a favor to Johnny.

After marrying her at all, let alone without a prenup, while everyone was telling him not to, it was probably difficult to admit he was wrong about her. Plus, unlike Musk, who was only looking for the wild fun & games, Johnny actually loved her.

If it's proven in court what's obvious to everyone (she was cheating on him since the beginning of the marriage), can he get the marriage legally annulled and the $7 mil back? Can you annul a marriage that ended in divorce (and in California)? Or is the purpose of referencing this in the lawsuit to present more examples of her disreputable character and cruel abuse?

California is a no fault divorce state. "In California, all divorces are “No Fault” divorces, meaning the spouse asking for a divorce does not have to prove the other spouse did something wrong. Generally, the spouse who files for divorce does so because of something called “irreconcilable differences.” This means the two spouses just couldn’t get along. "It does not matter if one spouse had an affair in a no fault divorce. California law does not punish the party who has an affair with less property or more pay support because of an affair." (from CA divorce.com) I think this lawsuit is about Amber destroying Johnny's reputation.

[justintime]

I am glad Johnny is getting his side heard! But still, this is all very scary. Justice is blind ... the good guys don't always win, and she-who-shall-not-be-named is evil.

I think you’ve said a whole lot in those few words, nebraska, and I agree with every one of them.

As all of this nightmare has been unraveling, my own emotions have been fraught with everything from shock and disbelief to extremes of happiness, anger, and fear.

No matter what the twists and turns, though, I truly believe Johnny has been unforgivably wronged by a behemoth of intertwined greedy and amoral interests, as well as his ex-wife. I hope with all my heart Johnny does, indeed, get to present to the world the truth (imo “his side”) on his terms, that anyone concerned enough to have voiced some thoughts now really listens, and that he never has reason to regret having surrendered so much of his life to defeat his personal Goliath.