A DOCTOR is examining an "hysterical" Schapelle Corby in a packed Bali court after she collapsed in the witness chair today.

The collapse forced her trial on drug trafficking charges to be temporarily suspended on one of the most important days of the hearing.

The Denpasar District Court had expected to hear today if prosecutors wanted Corby to get the death penalty if convicted of smuggling 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali last October.

The 27-year-old former beauty student from the Gold Coast arrived at the court handcuffed to an Indonesian female prisoner, who fainted shortly after they were let out of the police van and into a media crush.

Corby was dragged down when the woman passed out and Corby's sister Mercedes rushed in to help, yelling at journalists to "Leave her alone, all of you!" before using her handbag to hit an Indonesian reporter over the head.

Police were forced to carry the two prisoners, still handcuffed together, to a holding cell at the court.

Mercedes demanded a doctor be allowed to examine Corby.

She described her sister as "hysterical" and still suffering from stress and diarrhoea which forced the postponement of her trail appearance last week.

"She is still sick, but a doctor has been called because of what happened this morning," she told AAP.

"Did you see her getting carried like a baby, screaming and then being taken to the cell screaming."

Australia's consul in Bali Brent Hall called a medic to the court.

The trial was temporarily suspended while the doctors examined Corby in the court room, as scores of onlookers watched.

Corby was in obvious distress as she arrived at the court this morning, fearing prosecutors might recommend she face a firing squad if convicted.

A general rule of thumb in Indonesia is that judges will not go below one third of what the prosecution demands, and they rarely hand down a harsher punishment, observers said.

The Australian government has appealed to Indonesia for clemency.

In a similar case in Bali recently, prosecutors demanded the death penalty for a taxi driver who admitted possessing 3.9kg of marijuana.

Corby denies smuggling the marijuana into Bali airport in her unlocked bodyboard bag, and says the drugs were planted, probably by a baggage handler involved in a drug ring in Australia.