SC · rules
SCRE 615
Exclusion of Witnesses
At the request of a party the court may order witnesses excluded so that they cannot hear the
testimony of other witnesses, and it may make the order of its own motion. This rule does not
authorize exclusion of (1) a party who is a natural person, or (2) an officer or employee of a party which
is not a natural person designated as its representative by its attorney, or (3) a person whose presence
is shown by a party to be essential to the presentation of the party's cause.
Note:
The federal rule requires sequestration of witnesses upon the request of a party. The
South Carolina rule adheres to prior state practice which leaves the sequestration
decision in the sound discretion of the trial judge. See State v. Jackson, 265 S.C. 278,
217 S.E.2d 794 (1975); State v. Miokovich, 257 S.C. 225, 185 S.E.2d 360 (1971).
Otherwise, the South Carolina rule is consistent with the federal rule.
Provenance
- Source
- www.sccourts.org
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-02
- Edition
- supplied-sc-04-print-version-2026-10-02
- Content hash
3fc0c08e78ae293568446a9b406dd04c875a99412859e9d26b817b691fc661ab
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.