Court Opinion

ID: 9756014
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:02:54.705832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:13.889670
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that an order disqualifying counsel is not immediately appealable. A defendant’s right to his chosen attorney1 is too important to be *307denied immediate review, and the defendant will be irreparably harmed if a disqualification order cannot be appealed until after trial.
The majority concludes that a disqualification order does not satisfy the requirements of the collateral order exception to the general rule that only final orders are appealable. In doing so, the majority endorses the reasoning of Flanagan v. United States, 465 U.S. 259, 104 S.Ct. 1051, 79 L.Ed.2d 288 (1984), rejects the rationale of the Superior Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Cassidy, 390 Pa.Super. 359, 568 A.2d 693 (1989), and likens a disqualification order to rulings that are not immediately appealable, such as rulings on motions to suppress evidence.
In Flanagan, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a trial judge’s order disqualifying a criminal defendant’s counsel did not satisfy the requirements of the collateral order exception and therefore was not immediately appealable. I note that prior to Flanagan, a majority of federal appellate courts held disqualification orders to be immediately appealable. In United States v. Garcia, 517 F.2d 272, 275 (5th Cir.1975), the court explained that such orders were “separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated.” (emphasis added). The court also concluded that “deferral of review until after completion of the trial would dissipate judicial resources and possibly jeopardize the defendants’ case by prohibiting representation at trial by counsel of their choice.” Garcia, at 275.
In United States v. Phillips, 699 F.2d 798, 802 (6th Cir. 1983), the court reasoned that “[t]o require a defendant in a criminal case to stand trial and risk conviction while deprived of the services of his chosen counsel without an opportunity to test the legality of the order of disqualification is fundamentally unfair.” (emphasis added). The Phillips court went on to conclude that “[a] defendant erroneously deprived of the *308fundamental constitutional right to counsel of his choice should not be required to endure the rigors of trial and obloquy of conviction before establishing that error has been committed.” Phillips, at 802.
In addition, the Second, Third, Fourth, Eighth and Eleventh Circuits all considered disqualification orders immediately appealable prior to Flanagan. See United States v. Curcio, 694 F.2d 14 (2d Cir.1982) (disqualification order is immediately appealable under collateral order doctrine); U.S. v. Flanagan, 679 F.2d 1072, 1073 n. 1 (3d Cir.1982), rev’d, 465 U.S. 259, 104 S.Ct. 1051, 79 L.Ed.2d 288 (1984) (disqualification order is a collateral order and therefore appealable); U.S. v. Smith, 653 F.2d 126 (4th Cir.1981) (entertaining appeal of pre-trial disqualification order without discussion of appealability issue); U.S. v. Agosto, 675 F.2d 965, 968 n. 1 (8th Cir.1982), cert. den. after remand and affirmance sub. nom. Gustafson v. U.S., 459 U.S. 834, 103 S.Ct. 77, 74 L.Ed.2d 74 (1982) (disqualification order is final order under collateral order doctrine); U.S. v. Hobson, 672 F.2d 825, 826 (11th Cir.1982) (using conclusory language that disqualification orders are immediately appeal-able).
Because Flanagan resolved an issue of federal appellate procedure, not constitutional law, we are not bound to follow it. I would hold, as the majority of federal appellate courts held prior to Flanagan, that disqualification orders are immediately appealable. The right to counsel is of exceptional and unusual importance, for it is that right which opens the door to all of a defendant’s other rights.
If a defendant is forced to suffer the loss of the benefits that a right is intended to protect, then it does not matter that, after the fact, a court is willing to reinstate that right in a technical fashion. Practically speaking, the defendant will only be able to recover those benefits that survived the erroneous denial of the right in the first place. See Bell v. Beneficial Consumer Co., 465 Pa. 225, 228, 348 A.2d 734, 735 (1975) (“a finding of finality must be the result of a practical *309rather than a technical construction.”)2
Some of the benefits of a defendant’s right to chosen counsel were discussed in Cassidy, where the Superior Court held that an order disqualifying a defendant’s counsel was immediately appealable. The court explained that requiring a defendant to proceed to trial without counsel of choice forces the defendant to reveal his or her defense, as well as the testimony of witnesses, to the prosecution. Cassidy, 390 Pa.Super. at 366, 568 A.2d at 696. Consequently, even if the defendant is awarded a new trial due to the improper disqualification of his or her attorney, the defendant has already been permanently prejudiced. Id. Additionally, the court found it fundamentally unfair to require a defendant to proceed to trial without counsel of choice and incur the attendant counsel fees in order to vindicate on appeal the right to be represented by the attorney initially retained. Id. at 366, 568 A.2d at 696-97. The court also concluded that it could not convincingly protect a defendant’s right to counsel of choice if the defendant had to bear the anxiety of trial and the humiliation of conviction before appealing the issue. Id. at 367, 568 A.2d at 697.
The majority rejects Cassidy on the grounds that the court’s reasons for permitting immediate appeal are common to all erroneous pre-trial rulings, yet the majority of pre-trial rulings are not immediately appealable. Majority Opinion at 834. According to the majority, the Cassidy court’s concerns “have nothing to do with whether the right to counsel of choice is lost if not reviewed before judgment.” Id. at 834. To the contrary, I find that the court’s concerns are very relevant to the issue of whether the right to counsel of choice will be irreparably lost, since those concerns reflect the benefits of the right itself. As previously noted, if the benefits of a defendant’s right to his chosen counsel are lost, then in both a logical and practical respect the right itself is lost.
*310Moreover, there are additional consequences of forcing a defendant to wait until after judgment to appeal a disqualification order not addressed in Cassidy, Flanagan3 or the majority’s opinion. For example, the defendant’s chosen counsel may not be available for a second trial due to illness, relocation, or other work that prevents him or her from representing the defendant in a new trial. If this is the case, then the defendant’s right will have been irreparably lost. There is also the possibility that a defendant may not have the financial resources to obtain the originally chosen attorney a second time. Additionally, the defendant might be hesitant to confide in the new attorney after having been stripped of his or her first attorney.
Simple reinstatement of the original attorney after trial will not repair the defendant’s lost faith in the certainty of his relationship with his attorney. See Osoba, at 151, citing Margolin & Coliver, Pretrial Disqualification of Criminal Defense Counsel, 20 Am.Crim.L.Rev. 227, 227-28 (1982). The only way to prevent such a rupture is to permit such orders to be immediately appealed.
The majority does not decide the question of whether a defendant appealing a disqualification order would have the burden of proving prejudice. For the reasons stated above, I reject the majority’s abrupt conclusion that “[i]f a defendant is not required to show prejudice, [then] the disqualification order can be effectively reviewed post-judgment.” Majority Opinion at 833, citing Flanagan at 268-69, 104 S.Ct. at 1056-57. However, if a defendant were required to show prejudice on appeal, I believe there are additional problems that would prevent an appellate court from conducting effective review.
*311In contrast to many other rights, such as the right to a fair trial or the right to be free from an unreasonable search or seizure, where there is an inherently objective nature to the right, the right to chosen counsel is highly subjective. The absence of an objective element makes it virtually impossible to determine whether the defendant was prejudiced by an improper disqualification of his chosen counsel; there is no objective standard for making such a judgment.
Among the grounds offered by the majority in support of its holding, is the possibility that new counsel may obtain a judgment in Appellant’s favor. I cannot agree that potential mootness is a justification for denying a defendant proper appellate review of a trial judge’s decision to strip him of his right to his chosen counsel. The right to chosen counsel is too important to simply wait and see if an acquittal will make it unnecessary for an appellate court to vindicate the right.
Nor do I find that the potential delay in the trial proceedings, or congestion at the appellate level, justify denying immediate appellate review. Disqualification orders are relatively uncommon. Therefore, they would not contribute substantially to our appellate court dockets. We should be true to our words in Bell v. Beneficial Consumer Discount Co., 465 Pa. 225, 232, 348 A.2d 734, 738 (1975), that, “[w]e do not perceive our appellate responsibilities as a variable function of our caseload.”
I also do not think that a potential delay in the trial court proceedings justifies denying a defendant proper appellate safeguards against an erroneous disqualification order. There is already a delay that results from the defendant’s need to find new counsel, or the court’s need to appoint new counsel. An expedited review process could quickly dispose of these appeals from the small number of disqualification orders that are issued. In the time it would take new counsel to acquaint themselves with the case, an effective review could be made by an appellate court.
Finally, permitting immediate appeals from disqualification orders will prevent parties with adverse interests from sue*312cessfully having a defendant’s counsel disqualified, if the disqualification is legally unwarranted. Thus, the danger of parties attempting to use disqualification motions as a litigation tactic would be eliminated. See Genego, Prosecutorial Control Over A Defendant’s Choice of Counsel, 27 Santa Clara L.Rev. 17 (1987).
Practical protection of a defendant’s right to his or her chosen counsel requires that disqualification orders be subject to immediate appeal. Otherwise, the defendant will be irreversibly denied many of the benefits that are at the heart of that important right. Because I believe that the question of whether the trial judge erred:in-removing counsel is properly before us, I dissent from the order quashing the appeal.
FLAHERTY, C.J., joins this dissenting opinion.

. In speaking of a defendant’s right to counsel of choice, I refer to a defendant’s right not to be stripped of the attorney he or she has chosen, or of an attorney that has become the defendant's counsel on appointment by the court. I do not imply that the right to counsel is *307absolute or suggest that a defendant has an unfettered right to be represented by any attorney he or she may request.

. In Bell, we held that an order dismissing the class aspects of a suit is a final order for the parties put out of court and is appealable even though, in theory, the named plaintiffs can individually pursue action further and the ousted members of the class can bring separate individual actions. Bell, 465 Pa. 225, 348 A.2d 734 (1975).

. In Flanagan, jurisdiction was not challenged in the lower court. Therefore, the Court avoided a number of potential arguments regarding the issue of immediate appealability. Indeed, the Court failed to address any of the rationales that a number of circuit courts had employed in concluding that disqualification orders were immediately appealable. See Wayne F. Osoba, Immediate Appealability of Orders Disqualifying a Criminal Defendant’s Counsel, Univ.Ill.L.Rev. 135, 137 n. 16 (1984), citing 52 U.S.L.W. 4201, 4202 n. 2 (U.S. Feb. 21, 1984).