Libel Law Through The Looking Glass – Learning Lessons From Johnny Depp's UK And US Litigation

Johnny Depp has suffered a reputation malfunction. A significant loss in the London libel courts has him emerging from an effort to restore a reputation tarnished by a small tabloid op-ed, with that reputation entirely torn to shreds by way of horrendous headlines in myriad media across the globe.

Depp's response to the judgment as he sets out his stall to appeal was to call it "surreal". His lawyers have labeled it as "flawed" and "as perverse as it is bewildering". But what may be more bewildering is Depp's decision to pursue, undaunted, a separate libel action against his former wife in the Virginia court, hot on the heels of his failed attempt in England.

There are a number of differences between the two cases. Depp was named in the first article; not named but he argues sufficiently identified in the second. In the UK the defendant was News Group Newspapers, publishers of The Sun, Depp's former wife Amber Heard the newspaper's star witness; in the US it