Johnny Depp's $30 million malpractice case against ex-lawyers delayed by four months amid ongoing lawsuit against Amber Heard
Johnny Depp's ongoing battle with his former legal team has been delayed by around four months to try and provide more time to submit testimonies and also to "unwind the actor's tangled affairs."
The 55-year-old Depp was supposed to be facing the legal firm Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman whom he is suing for $30 million in court on May 6. However,
. There are also outstanding depositions remaining.
As reported by The Blast, the judge has warned that both sides could have moved faster and have caused the case to drag on while engaging in "a great deal of finger-pointing concerning whose fault it is." The company was concerned about the documents and information which they claim Depp failed to give while the judge ordered the 'Pirates of the Carribean' star to provide more detailed answers to a number of questions but denied some of the company's demands.
"This case requires the parties to unwind the tangled affairs of Plaintiff Depp, his various entities, and his lawyers, going back several years. Plaintiff's inclination to incorporate by reference and tell Defendant Firm to, in essence, 'figure it out', is understandable," the judge noted.
"However, the very number of parties and issues present in this case calls for a more meticulous approach. Although shorthand references are easier, they are by necessity less clear," the judge added.
Johnny Depp had accused the firm of conspiring with his former business managers — The Management Group (TMG) to try and cheat him out of millions of dollars while blaming his lawyers for allegedly not notifying him, even though they knew what was going on. His lawyer shared, "Bloom is accused among other things of a failure to supervise the fraudulent activity of the Mandel Brothers/TMG, Mr. Depp's former business managers who are under multiple federal criminal investigations and whose offices were raided by the FBI in June 2017."
"Judge Green agreed to move their trial from May to September, and ruled that Bloom is entitled to Mandel's sealed documents," he shared before slamming the firm for their behavior when Depp was getting divorced from Amber Heard who accused Depp of being abusive during their marriage.
"Part of Bloom's defense is that he did a good job on Mr. Depp's divorce. But the facts are these: some of Mr. Depp's legal dream team of five Hollywood lawyers reviewed the entire surveillance video library taken of Ms. Heard, her friends, Elon Musk and others captured by 24 surveillance cameras in the Eastern Columbia Building and the 87 surveillance videos that these lawyers set aside," the lawyer added.
"Then Mr. Depp's lawyers took sworn declarations from multiple eyewitnesses. Some on Mr. Depp's legal team secretly represented Elon Musk. Some of Mr. Depp's legal team then hid for nearly three years this exculpatory evidence from Mr. Depp that disproved the malicious hoax perpetrated against him by Amber Heard," he continued. The company denied all allegations and insisted that they had not conspired against Depp.
Instead, they filed a countersuit which accused the star of causing his own damages as a result of his own misconduct and negligence. They also claimed that he had not paid them for several months, despite the fact that they continued to work for him. Depp has also filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his former wife where he claims that her accusations of domestic abuse were an "elaborate hoax".