(a)Amount. A witness attending before any court, referee, master, grand jury or coroner's jury or upon a deposition in a discovery proceeding, whose testimony is necessary and material to the action, shall receive a witness fee of $12.50 if such attendance, including the time necessarily occupied in traveling from the witness' residence to the place of attendance and returning from that place, requires not more than three consecutive hours. If such attendance requires more than three consecutive hours, the witness shall receive a witness fee of $25.00 for each day of attendance. Any witness who attends at a point so far removed from the witness' residence as to necessarily prohibit return thereto from day-to-day shall receive per diem at the rate allowed for state employees.(b)Travel Expense. Every witness who is required to travel in excess of 30 miles from the witness' residence is entitled to receive reimbursement for round-trip travel from the witness' residence to the place of court at the rate allowed for state employees.(c)Expert Witnesses. Recovery of costs for a witness called to testify as an expert is limited to the time when the expert is employed and testifying and shall not exceed $150.00 per hour, except as otherwise provided in these rules. A party may not recover costs for more than three independent expert witnesses as to the same issue in any given case, unless the judge permits recovery for an additional number of expert witnesses. For purposes of this rule, an independent expert is a witness who is retained or specially employed to provide expert testimony in the case or whose duties as an employee of the party regularly involve giving expert testimony.(d)Payment. Witness fees, travel expense and per diem shall be paid from the appropriation to the judiciary only for witnesses called or appointed by the court or in coroner's cases. In all other cases, these fees and expenses shall be paid by the parties, and in civil cases, shall be taxed and collected as other costs.(e)Demand of Payment in Advance in Civil Cases. Witnesses in civil cases, except when subpoenaed by the state, a municipality, a borough, a city, or an officer or agency thereof, may demand the payment in advance of their travel expense and their per diem fee for one day, and when so demanded shall not be compelled to attend until the allowances are paid.(f)Parties and Attorneys as Witnesses. A party to the action or hearing, if a witness, is entitled to receive the same witness fees, per diem and travel expense as any other witness. A person appearing as an attorney for any party to an action or hearing, who also testifies as a witness therein, is not entitled to receive any witness fee, per diem or travel expenses.Adopted by SCO 412 effective 7/1/1980; amended by SCO 559 effective 5/2/1983; by SCO 791 effective 3/15/1987; by SCO 1153 effective 7/15/1994; by SCO 1172 effective 7/15/1995; and by SCO 1492 effective 10/15/2002