From Thursday's decision in Gillikin v. Mattingly, decided by Indiana Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert Altice, joined by Judges Rudolph Pyle and Mary DeBoer:
Amy Gillikin appeals the trial court's denial of her motion to set aside a $250,000 default judgment entered against her for defamation, which was based on a scathing Google review that she posted online about Janice Mandla Mattingly and Mattingly's law firm, Janice Mandla Mattingly, P.C., D/B/A Carmel Family Law (collectively, Mattingly)….
In June 2024, Mattingly and Gillikin did not personally know each other, but Mattingly represented the former spouse of Gillikin's fiancé in a pending legal matter involving child custody and parenting time. Around the middle of that month, Gillikin posted a review on Mattingly's Google review page.
In the post, Gillikin described Mattingly as a corrupt attorney and a monster, who exploits abused children for her own monetary gain, and who would soon be disbarred. Gillikin suggested that Mattingly colludes with the Hamilton County magistrates, among others, and that Mattingly knows that her clients continue to abuse their children. She concluded her post: "We pray that the Attorney General can stop this racket before anymore children are affected by her unethical conduct." …
Mattingly got a default judgment against Gillikin, because Gillikin didn't timely respond to the lawsuit. But the appellate court concluded that the trial court should have set aside the judgment:
