§ 8.01-375.Exclusion of witnesses in civil cases (Subsection (a) of Supreme Court Rule 2:615 derived in part from this section and subsection (b) of Supreme Court Rule 2:615 derived from this section).

Witness sequestration is a trial tactic as old as trials themselves: keep witnesses out of the courtroom until they testify so their accounts stay their own, not a polished version shaped by hearing everyone else go first. Section 8.01-375 puts that power squarely in the judge’s hands for civil cases in Virginia. The court can order every witness excluded on its own initiative, and it must do so once any party asks.

The exclusion is not absolute. Four categories of people get to stay as a matter of right regardless of what side asks for exclusion: each individual party to the case, one officer or agent representing each corporate, partnership, association, governmental, or other institutional party, an attorney accused of providing ineffective assistance in a habeas corpus proceeding, and — in general district court unlawful detainer cases — a managing agent as defined by the landlord-tenant statutes. The idea is that a party, or the person standing in for an institutional party, needs to hear the trial to help run it, not just testify at it.

Expert witnesses get a separate accommodation. When experts are set to testify, the court may let one expert per party remain in the courtroom if every party agrees. In cases dividing marital property or setting child or spousal support, the court has more latitude: it can allow one expert per side to stay through the whole hearing on a single party’s motion, without needing everyone to agree.