Two of the most important and time-honored doctrines in the law are the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. Without the proper application of those doctrines, it has been argued that there would be chaos. Res judicata is also known as claim preclusion. Collateral estoppel is also referred to as issue preclusion. The doctrine of res judicata applies to prevent litigants from bearing the burden of relitigating the same claims with the same parties and to promote judicial economy. “Under the doctrine of res judicata, a judgment on the merits in a prior suit bars a second suit on the same cause of action.” Collateral estoppel “is a broader concept than res judicata and ‘operates to prevent a question of law or issue of fact which has once been litigated and fully determined in a court of competent jurisdiction.’”

Recently, in the case of Moyer v. Shaffer, 305 A.3d 1064 (Pa. Super. 2023), the Pennsylvania Superior Court addressed the issue of the application of res judicata and collateral estoppel in a protection from abuse matter. The pertinent facts of the Moyer case are as follows: on Aug. 24, 2022, Moyer filed an initial protection from abuse (PFA) petition against Shaffer, “which the trial court ultimately dismissed without prejudice on Sept. 6, 2022, after Moyer failed to appear at a scheduled hearing regarding the petition.”