Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

Why is this a credit/collection issue? It sounds like an evidentiary issue.

The admission or exclusion of evidence is governed by the PA Evidence Code/rules and cases.

You do not indicate what kind of case this is. It may matter as there are some different considerations in a criminal case.

Generally, any relevant evidence can come in unless its unfairly prejudicial (unfair prejudice is not just that this is negative information about you - it has to be unfair in some way - example would be that in a slip and fall case the other side seeks to introduce evidence that you are a wife-beater or child molester, facts which have no relevance to your case and which the other side wants to get in to make the jury dislike you. However, evidence that you are tax cheat might come in because it shows your propensity or lack thereof to tell the truth - the theory being that if you are someone who would cheat on taxes then it may be less likely for you to tell the truth about falling down and getting hurt.

So if its relevant, not unfairly prejudicial and a proper foundation is laid, it can probably come in. Also, it can be used in other contexts for impeaching your credibility or veracity and you could be cross-examined on it without admitting it into evidence.

Since you are asking this question it means that there is or soon will be litigation of some sort. This also implies you have a lawyer or the other side has a lawyer. If you have a lawyer, you should be discussing this with him or her. Not only is it unethical for another attorney to interfere in your existing attorney-client relationship, but the other lawyer has all the facts. Neither I nor any other lawyer here does. We don't know what the case is about, what the arbitration case was about or what you testified to in the arbitration case. So no lawyer here at Law Guru or on another public forum could possibly give meaningful legal advice.

If you do not have a lawyer, I suggest that you get one or else get familiar with the PA Evidence code if this action is in the state courts. If its a federal case then it would be governed by the federal rules of evidence. You also need to know how the courts have interpreted the particular rules in question. if the arbitration case is not relevant then you could file what is called a motion in limine prior to trial to get a ruling from the court that this evidence should be excluded. These things are not favored always ... as a matter of strategy, it may just be better to wait and see what happens at trial and if the other side tries to get the testimony admitted object to its admission based on your review of the caselaw and rules. The trial judge could still admit it, but you may then have an appealable issue if you end up losing the case if the judge errs and the error was critical and might have resulted in a different verdict.