UK Barrister Reacts To Amber Heard's Therapist Notes, Explains Why They're Not Admissible

Amber Heard believed that her therapist's notes containing how Johnny Depp allegedly abused her could have changed the jury's verdict. But a lawyer from the U.K. agreed with the judge from Virginia, who rejected the files on the basis of hearsay.

Daniel ShenSmith, a lawyer in England and Wales who goes by Blackbelt Barrister on YouTube, shared his opinion on the therapist's notes that Heard presented in her interview with Savannah Guthrie for NBC News.

According to ShenSmith, there were two reasons why the documents that Heard believed could have helped her case against Depp got rejected. He agreed that they were inadmissible as evidence for two reasons. First, the files were self-serving.

"A self-serving statement could be any kind of written statement or document that supports one party's legal pursuit in one way or another but doesn't actually provide any evidence," ShenSmith explained. "In other words, it might be a statement produced by that person, by that party or some other party if they have reported certain events to that party and they've made written noted about it."

The U.K. barrister pointed out that "it doesn't provide any actual evidence." It was not photographic evidence, not video evidence, or any other kind of evidence but just a statement that supported or served one's argument that's why it's called a "self-serving statement."

To prove his point, ShenSmith provided an example of a person stealing a car but making several statements before stealing the vehicle, saying he has no intention of stealing it. The lawyer noted that the person's previous statements were self-serving because aside from saying he did not intend to steal the car, he did not provide any further evidence of not stealing the car other than what he previously said.

The second reason was the notion of hearsay. "Hearsay is anything other than oral evidence given in court that is because you cannot test anything other than oral evidence in court," ShenSmith explained. He said oral live testimony can be tested in cross-examination, so it is not hearsay. However, anything else is hearsay.

ShenSmith ​​launched a petition on Change.org to allow the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star to re-appeal his libel case in the U.K. in 2020 because Depp won his defamation case in Virginia, suggesting that the abuse did not happen and the verdict in the U.S. was different from the one in the U.K.

"The right evidence has been heard in the U.S. trial and decided by a jury, but the problem is that those two decisions are now not in sync. And with two very different decisions, in my view, that isn't justice," he said about the petition on his YouTube channel.

Depp sued the tabloid The Sun for calling him a "wife-beater." He lost the case after a U.K. judge upheld the outlet's claim as "substantially true." Depp attempted to overturn the decision, but the same judge denied his appeal.