Dana Evans v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: June 7, 2013
• Docket: A13I0226
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,__________________ June 07, 2013

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A13I0226. DANA EVANS et al. v. THE STATE.

Dana Evans and seven co-defendants have filed an application for interlocutory appeal, seeking review of the trial court’s order disqualifying their counsel in this criminal case. An order disqualifying counsel is an interlocutory order. See Cherry v. Coast House, Ltd., 257 Ga. 403, 404 (2) (359 SE2d 904) (1987); Ewing Holding Corp. v. Egan-Stanley Investments, 154 Ga. App. 493, 495-496 (1) (268 SE2d 733) (1980). Thus, in order to obtain appellate review, the applicants were required to follow the interlocutory appeal procedure set forth in OCGA § 5-6-34 (b) by, among other things, obtaining a certificate of immediate review. Although the applicants requested a certificate of immediate review, the trial court denied their request. Accordingly, we lack jurisdiction to consider this application. The applicants urge us to treat the disqualification order as a collateral order subject to direct appeal. See Bradberry v. State, 315 Ga. App. 434, 436 (727 SE2d 208) (2012). We, however, decline to do so. See Flanagan v. United States, 465 U. S. 259 (104 SCt 1051, 79 LE2d 288) (1984) (“Nothing about a counsel disqualification order distinguishes it from the run of pretrial decisions that affect the rights of criminal defendants yet must await completion of trial court proceedings for review.”) In the absence of a certificate of immediate review, this application is hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 06/07/2013 Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,__________________ I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.