Kendall Lacy v. Thomas A. Cox, Jr., A22A0452

Petitioner Kendall Lacy, incarcerated in Fulton County Jail awaiting trial, sought an order from the Court of Appeals compelling the trial judge to let him represent himself.
In the trial court Lacy had filed a mandamus petition to remove counsel for ineffective assistance; that petition was dismissed with prejudice and Lacy then filed a motion for default judgment that remained undecided.
Lacy contends counsel’s failure to answer his trial-court mandamus petition entitles him to a default judgment permitting pro se status and asks this Court to compel the trial judge to allow self-representation.
The Court of Appeals held that the requested relief (permission to proceed pro se in the criminal case) is a matter for the trial court and not a proper subject of the Court of Appeals’ original mandamus jurisdiction.
The Court also noted that, because Lacy is incarcerated, any appeal of a civil ruling requires a discretionary application under the Prison Litigation Reform Act; he did not follow that procedure, so the Court lacks jurisdiction.
The petition for mandamus was dismissed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether this Court should issue original mandamus directing the trial court to allow Lacy to proceed pro se	Lacy asked the Court of Appeals to mandate the trial judge to permit self-representation because counsel failed to answer his trial-court mandamus petition (seeking a default judgment)	Mandamus is inappropriate because the proper forum for requesting to proceed pro se is the trial court; an adequate remedy exists there	Denied — original mandamus not warranted; relief must be sought in the trial court
Whether the Court of Appeals has jurisdiction to review the trial court’s dismissal of Lacy’s civil mandamus petition given his incarceration	Lacy appears to seek appellate review of the trial-court dismissal	Prison Litigation Reform Act requires a prisoner to seek review of civil rulings by discretionary application; Lacy did not file one	Court lacks jurisdiction to hear an appeal of the civil dismissal; any such appeal would require a discretionary application

Bibb County v. Monroe County, 294 Ga. 730 (2014) (mandamus issues and standards for original mandamus relief)
Oduok v. Bowden, 272 Ga. 778 (2000) (mandamus unavailable when adequate remedy exists in the pending criminal case)
Jones v. Townsend, 267 Ga. 489 (1997) (prisoner civil appeals require discretionary application under PLRA)
Brock v. Hardman, 303 Ga. 729 (2018) (reaffirming that incarcerated litigants must use discretionary application to appeal civil rulings)