When the use of excessive force means that a police officer has acted beyond their scope of employment—and the protection of sovereign immunity—should be a question for jurors to answer, the lawyer for a plaintiff who claimed she suffered an injury during a traffic stop argued Thursday to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

A lawyer from the state Attorney General’s Office said, however, that in the vast majority of cases a judge must decide as a matter of law whether an officer has acted outside their scope of employment.