This past summer, temperatures were not the only things heating up as the media and general public tuned into the widely publicized defamation trial, where actor Johnny Depp sued his ex-wife and actress, Amber Heard, over a Washington Post article she wrote in December 2018 regarding her experiences with domestic abuse. Decided on June 1, 2022, the court ordered Ms. Heard to pay $8.3 million. Surprisingly, Ms. Heard looked to her insurance carrier to foot the $8.3 million dollar bill.
On February 10, 2023, Berger Kahn attorneys Erin Ezra, Jamie Rice, and Tyler Angelini discussed the various factors that could affect liability coverage for defamation in the Reuters article, “How Insurance Plays into the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Defamation Trial.”
Factors include: the specific nature of the defamation, the specific insurance policy and its language, and how courts interpret the language under state laws.