When may the court examine a witness outside the courtroom or where the witness is, and what must it do before doing so?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In the practice file, we look for the papers showing the witness's age, occupation and health condition, and any note of the hearing recording what the prosecutor, the accused and defence counsel each said when their opinion was asked.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading keeps every condition the provision attaches: the court considers the witness's age, occupation, health condition and other circumstances, and having asked the opinion of the prosecutor, the accused or defence counsel, may then summon and examine the witness outside the courtroom or examine the witness at the current location.
Another reading notes what the provision leaves open: it uses 'may', so the power is discretionary rather than automatic, and it does not say what counts as the 'other circumstances', who may be present at such an examination, or how the opinions asked are to be recorded.
Your judgment
When only some of the circumstances the provision names are present, what in the file could show why the court still examined the witness away from the courtroom?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change whose opinion must be asked or to set out what the examination outside the courtroom must look like, or if a court decision rules on how far those circumstances must be shown on the record.