The Lawsuits Thread

[Lbock]

Her original attorneys have withdrawn. Geiefw has been with her a long time including London Fields law suit

[Theresa]

It's a pro-Amber website so I won't post all the text here, but apparently today Roberta Kaplan has filed for a continuance because Johnny's attorneys haven't produced the required documents.

The legal representation for Johnny Depp has apparently failed to produce such documentation and today, a motion for continuance was filed on behalf of Amber Heard inJohnny Depp v. Amber Heard.

According to Heard’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, “By failing to produce: (1) his medical records and other documents ordered by the Virginia court; (2) documents his own U.K. counsel produced in his related case for defamation against The London Sun; (3) relevant documents produced in his litigation with his former manager; (4) a single relevant text or other communication with anyone on his staff; or (5) any substantiation for the $50 million in damages he seeks from Ms. Heard, Mr. Depp has made it clear that his strategy is to try to run out the clock during the holiday season so that Ms. Heard is unable to obtain critical evidence and testimony to corroborate her defenses to the baseless defamation suit he filed against her. While Mr. Depp would like the trial to be a “he said/she said” contest of his own skills as an actor, Ms. Heard, who would prefer that the case be about the truth of what really happened, has asked the Court for a relatively brief two-month continuance to give her time to obtain the evidence that Mr. Depp has stubbornly resisted producing.”

Full Motion is here:

[ForeverYoung]

It's a pro-Amber website so I won't post all the text here, but apparently today Roberta Kaplan has filed for a continuance because Johnny's attorneys haven't produced the required documents.

And this is coming from a person who has not even filed an Answer to the Complaint yet or showed up for her deposition.

[Lbock]

Johnny Team clapping back, BOOM!
Hearing tomorrow on discovery and her request to extend trial 2 months. I'm sure judge is not going to be happy with the Heard Team crying and running to the court all the time. Judges really do expect attorney's to work these things out as much as possible. And now, a hearing the day before Thanksgiving.

New Docs up
Plaintiff's Response to Defendant's Motion for Continuance

[Theresa]

Johnny Team clapping back, BOOM!

Wow, Mr Chew sure can get to the point, can't he? Took Amber's 50-something page request for continuance, and tore it apart in just four pages (and two of the pages are just the names and addresses!)

[Theresa]

Johnny Depp Settles Fee Dispute With Ex-Lawyers

By GENE MADDAUS
Variety
NOVEMBER 25, 2019 5:42PM PT


Johnny Depp is settling old business with his former lawyers.

First, Depp reached a deal with Jake Bloom, his former entertainment attorney of 18 years, whom the star had accused of pocketing more than $30 million without a written contract. Depp and Bloom reached an out-of-court deal on Oct. 30 that Depp’s side claimed was for “eight figures.”

Now, Depp has settled another lawsuit — this one brought by the lawyers he hired to sue Bloom. Fredrick Levin, Michael Rome and Ali Abugheida, of the firm of Buckley LLP, were retained to go after Bloom in 2017, and won a key court ruling in the case in August 2018.

But Depp fired the firm in December 2018. Edward White, Depp’s accountant, informed the firm that, “in an effort to be cost effective Mr. Depp and I decided to contract the number of law firms providing services to him and his entities.”

“As it relates to the residual fees of Buckley Sandler LLP, it is our intention to satisfy these fees as soon as Mr. Depp has the financial resources,” White continued.

In May, the law firm filed suit, claiming it had still not been paid $350,000 in legal bills.

In a telephone conference last week, attorneys for Depp and Depp’s ex-lawyers informed the court that the matter has been settled.

Depp’s legal issues are not over though. He is scheduled to go to trial in February in Virginia, where he is suing his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Depp contends that Heard defamed him in a Washington Post op/ed last year.

Heard’s attorneys asked the judge in that case for a two-month delay on Monday, saying that Depp has failed to turn over medical records and other discovery materials as ordered by the court.

[Lbock]

“As it relates to the residual fees of Buckley Sandler LLP, it is our intention to satisfy these fees as soon as Mr. Depp has the financial resources,” White continued.

I saw this document. I think Ed White badly worded a response. I think he meant at the finish or settlement of the Bloom case. But since he has JD power of attorney l, his word is Johnny's word. I think Ed answered before Depp’s team could verify the billing. IMO just my opinion

[ForeverYoung]

New motion filed by Johnny's team. It seems she is trying to block the use of depositions from the two police officers for this case.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/circuit/s ... 2-2019.pdf

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/circuit/s ... 2-2019.pdf

[Ruby Begonia]

Per new Order on the Fairfax site, Judge White has postponed the trial 6 months to 8/3/2020.

Judge wrote postponement is warranted based on information provided by "both sides."

August trial would interfere with the Vampires' European tour.

[ForeverYoung]

The judge moved the trial to Aug 3. He estimated three weeks. The first concert is Aug. 15. If it isn't over by then it is possible the judge will carry the trial until the tour is over. The tour was already scheduled before the judge make this order and this is considered work. It is also possible to get Johnny's testimony done before he has to go on tour.

[Lbock]

I’ve struggled with this. If I were a juror and was summoned to leave my job or family to hear a case on his behalf and he didn’t show? Well, if he didn’t care enough to be there then why should I. I think the tour dates weren’t communicated to Depps legal team as was his responsibility. I have to assume Depp knew they’d be negotiating another trial date

I asked this question on a free legal site “does the plaintiff have to attend the full trial” and stated the plaintiff has been contracted to be out of town when the new trial dates were set. Two answers so far..

No it is not required in a civil case but it would sometimes be best thing to do

Not sure why they would not want to be present. What happens if their attorney needs an answer to a question and they are out on tour? I would be wondering, if they can't make themselves available for their case, do they really care...

[ForeverYoung]

She asked for two months and Chew did not oppose, he only replied. There would be no way of knowing what the Judge would order. Sometimes it's done in a courtroom and some times it's done later. I'm sure the jury would be instructed that is a high profile case and because of his work schedule he would not be able to appear at times.

[AdeleAgain]

I am writing this with some thoughts on a couple of themes here. It comes from having spent last night at a pre Christmas gathering with some partners at a law firm in London who do quite a lot of celebrity work although they aren’t involved in any of these cases. This is just general things I picked up which help frame matters. The thing to note is that London is now like the US in this sense so that whilst what I’ve written below is almost always true in London it is definitely the case in the US.

Firstly it is incredibly unusual to work for celebrities on anything other than a no win no fee basis. Their personal lawyers are on retainers and they hire in litigators or specialists as needed. I thought this might help alleviate concerns people have over costs. Adam Waldman will definitely be on some retainer arrangement. So the matter of the law suit over unpaid fees was actually about amount owed. Lawyers regularly try to inflate bills once a case is over and there has been the win or try to prematurely force the timing of payment. So when Edward White said they would pay when they could he was saying - you get paid when the settlement if done. The part of the lawsuit which that law firm had worked on was a win for team Johnny but the settlement has only just been agreed.

Secondly it is unlikely though not impossible that the defamation case will not get to court. Lawyers will not go before a jury with flimsy evidence or no evidence when a settlement can be found. Background noise which is what AH side generates is not relevant and most will not be inadmissible. Now in this case I have never thought it was about money for Johnny. He has to put on an amount to show damage or loss and the Pirates contract is probably the most straightforward thing. Waldman has said at one point that they will settle if AH comes clean about lying. I think in the end she is going to have to do that. The alternative is humiliation and perjury. Now she may try subsequently to claim mental health or dependency issues but I really think they will hammer something out.

Their strategy is to prolong things as much as possible in the hope of landing PR punches and since others are likely footing her legal bills (her lawyers will be paid I believe because she is defending) she may as well carry on. But the point made repeatedly by my lawyers friends at the party - a case before court is simply not the same as PR. Before a trial you end up with hundreds of thousands of pages of docs and you need to distill those down to clear legal arguments before jury and judge. A lot of irrelevant rambling will not help.

I think those were the main takeaways. Brown Ruddnick which is the firm Waldman brought in are apparently just superb. Oh and also too many lawyers can spoil a case! Several candidly admitted that litigation lawyers in particular have big egos they kind of need too. But have too many big egos on a team and things get disfunctional very quickly.

Belated Happy Thanksgiving.

[Granna]

In the latest "news" coverage, it states: The defamation lawsuit has been postponed by 6 months, due to the failure of Johnny Depp turning over his records. Why is it not stated that she has not signed her medical release form and turned in her documents as well?

[ForeverYoung]

I am writing this with some thoughts on a couple of themes here. [.....]

Thanks for the info. I don't think it will go to court either but then again it's not going to settle, imo. I think Johnny knows she doesn't even have 1/2 of the amount he is suing her for. He wants the truth and for her to be exposed to all those charity supporters she probably gave money to. He can't even put a lien on her future earnings because she has no real work. She posted that she would be in Canada for three weeks working on the series but she is barely there and she has not been signed on yet for Aquaman 2.