It was 3 years ago when we first told you about Sherry Petta, a jazz singer from Scottsdale, Ariz., who was so disgruntled with her facial surgery that she defamed her husband-and-wife team of plastic surgeons through online postings, even going so far as to launch an attack website against her doctors. A jury ordered Ms. Petta to pay Albert Carlotti, MD, and his wife, Michelle Cabret-Carlotti, MD, of Desert Palm Surgical Group $12 million in damages.

But today Ms. Petta has 12 million reasons to smile. A state appeals court has overturned the jury's verdict, calling it "extreme" and one that "cannot be supported by the damages evidence presented and shocks the conscience of this court," the judges write in their ruling. The judges also ordered a new trial.

"It's not over till it's over, but this is a tremendous day in the last 3 years of my life," says Ms. Petta, 52, in a telephone interview. "This case has already cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. I've had to live the last 3 years knowing that my financial life could never improve. I could never own a home. There was no point in trying to prosper."

Ms. Petta, who says she was "a bit excited to have a nose revision," underwent cosmetic surgery on her nose and eyelids at the hands of Dr. Carlotti and laser-resurfacing treatments on her face from Dr. Cabret-Carlotti. She was unhappy with the results, claiming that her nostrils are uneven, there's an "unreasonable' dent on the side of her nose, and that her nose had been shortened and "turned up" by the surgery. She says her nose also developed residual thickening scar tissue. "I hate the way my nose looks," she says. "I hate it."

The laser resurfacing was no better. Ms. Petta claimed the procedure had burned and scarred her face, and caused a severe MRSA infection. The doctors later performed surgery to remove some of the scar tissue from her nose, but the doctor-patient relationship was on shaky ground. As the judges remarked, "It is obvious neither side was a model of propriety. The parties at times engaged in petty, unprofessional and vengeful behavior." To wit:

Ms. Petta started to consult other physicians and began posting statements on various consumer websites complaining about her experience with the Carlotti's and saying they were not "board certified," the ruling said. (Note: The Carlotti's are not plastic surgeons, but in addition to having doctorates of dental surgery, Dr. Carlotti says that both he and his wife went to medical school and are board-certified oral & maxillofacial surgeons.) In turn, Dr. Carlotti refused to continue Ms. Petta's care for a period of time due to her "screaming and using profanity" and her reliance on "unauthorized care." Ms. Petta fired the final salvo before the Carlotti's filed a defamation lawsuit when she launched a website, www.carlottivictim.com, to critique the medical care she received. The Carlotti's sued Ms. Petta for defamation, false light and invasion of privacy in May 2008 and demanded that she take down her website. After a 10-day trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded $11 million in actual damages and $1 million in punitive damages. The $12 million verdict rendered in this case was the largest civil jury verdict in Arizona in 2013.

"This is not free-speech America if someone has the right to sue you for online reviews," says Ms. Petta. "If you can't talk about the bad things that happened to you, how is the public supposed to be warned?" To be fair, online reviews for the Carlotti's on Yelp gush with praise.

As for a new trial, Ms. Petta says she's "not interested in additional litigation. But it's not my choice." Neither is Dr. Carlotti, 46, who says he and his wife have offered to settle with Ms. Petta on 5 occasions. "[Settling] was my intent 8 years ago and it's still my intent today," says Dr. Carlotti, "but only if she agrees to stop defaming me. Otherwise, I will defend myself to the ends of the earth.

Dr. Carlotti says Ms. Petta continues to this day her online attacks. "She has used the Internet as a weapon to try to put my wife and I out of business for quite a long time," he says. Dr. Carlotti adds that he's never received a penny from the initial judgment against Ms. Petta and has spent $800,000 in legal fees. "It was never about they money," he says. "I wanted to be vindicated and to clear my name of any wrongdoing."

Dan O'Connor