Appellants assert in their sole proposition of law that the court of appeals erred in dismissing their prohibition action. This action, they claim, is appropriate to prevent the enforcement of judicial orders that erroneously violated their constitutional privilege against self-incrimination as well as statutory attorney-client and physician-patient privileges. For the following reasons, however, appellants’ proposition lacks merit.
First, trial courts have the requisite jurisdiction to decide issues of privilege; thus, extraordinary relief in prohibition will not lie to correct any errors in decisions on these issues. See State ex rel. Children’s Med. Ctr. v. Brown (1991),
Second, appellants did not allege in their complaint that the trial court patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction to enter the pretrial discovery orders. In general, absent a patent and unambiguous lack of jurisdiction, a court having general subject-matter jurisdiction can determine its own jurisdiction, and a
Therefore, appeal following the entry of a final appealable order constitutes an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law to resolve any alleged error by the trial court in its pretrial discovery orders. See, e.g., State ex rel. White v. Junkin (1997),
Third, while we have issued a writ of prohibition in extremely rare circumstances to prevent the disclosure of privileged materials, see State ex rel. Lambdin v. Brenton (1970),
Based on the foregoing, the court of appeals properly granted appellees’ motion and dismissed appellants’ complaint. Accordingly, the judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
. In Walters v. The Enrichment Ctr. of Wishing Well, Inc. (1997),
