An appellate lawyer ordinarily respects precedent. Stare decisis is baked into the appellate hierarchy in which we operate. Thus, we understand and respect that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court controls, and that a Pennsylvania Superior Court panel cannot overrule another panel’s published opinion.

But some wiggle room exists. When an otherwise controlling decision has language in it that is not essential to the result, that language is “dicta” and not binding—at least most of the time.  “A dictum is not binding authority and has no precedential value.” See Associates of Chapman Lake v. Long, 253 A.3d 1210, 1217 (Pa. Super. 2021) (citations omitted).