Excluding Witnesses from the Courtroom

With 175 scored questions on the MBE, no one questions seems all that significant. But it's nice to get them right. You'll probably see one question on excluding witnesses from the courtroom. Here's what's to know:

At any party's request, the court *must order witnesses excluded so that they cannot hear other witnesses' testimony. Without such a request, the court may do so. But under no circumstance may the court order the following witnesses removed:

--a party to the lawsuit (if the party is a natural person) --an officer/employee of a party that is not a natural person (for example, a business) who has been designated as representative of that party (for example, the manager of a business) --any person who is essential to a party presenting a claim/defense

--a person authorized by statute to be present All that is to say there is a mandatory component to removal, a discretionary component to removal, and then 4 exceptions to both the mandatory and discretionary components to removal.