Public Defender's Office v. Venango County Court of Common Pleas

The Majority holds that the order below, which involuntarily drafted the Venango County Public Defender to serve as free standby counsel for a non-indigent criminal defendant who elected to represent himself pro se, is reviewable via the Public Defender’s Petition for a Writ of Prohibition, notwithstanding that the case is moot, and that the Writ was inappropriately invoked in a case where there is no allegation that the trial court acted either without jurisdiction or beyond its authority. On the merits of the question, the Majority approves of the appointment order below by deeming it an…