The state Supreme Court has delayed a provision of the state Medical Practice Act requiring out-of-state experts to be licensed as physicians in South Carolina.

The high court ruled that it, not the Legislature, is empowered by the state constitution to promulgate court administration rules, and to do otherwise could hinder the administration of justice.

"While we remain respectful of the General Assembly's voice in matters of practice and procedure in South Carolina's courts, this Court cannot allow the administration of justice to be substantially impaired," the justices wrote.

The court also held that the provision casts serious doubt on a physician's ability simply because he lives out of state.

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"It would do a great disservice to our system of justice if the doors of South Carolina courtrooms were closed to these scholarly works and the country's leading medical scholars," they wrote.

The South Carolina Medical Association and the state Board of Medical Examiners said they were surprised by the ruling because it came in the absence of a pending case. They are trying to determine their next step.

"When the Supreme Court issues an order, that's kind of final," said SCMA CEO Todd Atwater. "And when you don't have a chance to argue before the court, it makes it hard to know how to go forward."

Dr. Louis Costa, vice chair of the Board of Medical Examiners, said the provision was designed to hold doctors accountable for their testimony in malpractice cases by empowering the board to sanction doctors whose testimony was found to be false, not to restrict a judge's responsibility for determining qualified experts.

But Greenville attorney Mike Parham said it was meant to foster an environment of veiled threat to dissuade out-of-state experts from testifying in South Carolina. He said similar provisions have been enacted in several other states, and that medical boards in those states brought actions against plaintiffs' out-of-state experts to keep them from testifying again.

"The medical board does not want its doctors subjected to the scrutiny of doctors from outside the state," he said. "Doctors and hospitals still do not want to be held accountable in court for their medical errors. It's another method of letting the fox guard the henhouse."

The Supreme Court order is effective immediately.