Johnny Depp Doesn’t Actually Get $15 Million From Amber Heard. Here’s Why.
Listening to the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in the defamation case, we learned quite a few things.
One of those things was the donation that Amber Heard had pledged to the ACLU and a children’s hospital.
She had received $7 million in the divorce settlement from Johnny Depp and had pledged to donate the entirety of it to charity.
When questioned about these donations, she admitted that she had not completed the entire donations due to the defamation legal battle.
So, now that she is ruled to pay Johnny Depp $15 million, will she actually be paying him $15 million?
Nope…
The final ruling was that Amber was to pay $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
However, Virginia has a cap on punitive damages of $350,000, which means that Amber does not have to pay Johnny $15 million, but instead it is actually $10.35 million.
Amber Heard could file an appeal on the verdict, but this could be a risky move on her part.
If Amber chose to appeal the verdict, she would have to post a bond for the full $10.35 million in damages, but it sounds like she doesn’t have the money to risk it.
Now, according to legal experts, if she doesn’t choose to appeal and just accepts the ruling and does not have the money to pay, they will garnish her current and future wages.
The question is if she says, ‘Look, I don’t have it. It’s not there — you can look in my bank accounts,’ then we can talk about things like garnishing her wages. That’s not an unusual situation where somebody says, ‘I don’t have — I can’t fulfill this,’ and so I certainly think because she has earning potential.
CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson
Another option if she is unable to pay is to file bankruptcy and that would take care of the $10 million in compensatory damages, but she would still have to pay the $350,000 in punitive damages.
The other possible thing that could happen would be that Johnny Depp waives the monetary damages, which is possible since he mainly seemed to want his truth told and clear his name.
