Over the objection of one of its members, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made official through a rule change what a divided court was forced to do when it couldn’t reach a majority decision on the discoverability of attorney-expert communications: It made the communications off-limits in discovery.

The state court approved July 10 an amendment to Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 4003.5, creating a bright-line rule that attorney-expert communications are not discoverable in Pennsylvania.