Methodology and objects of assessment of the expert’s opinion by the state prosecutor

Purpose of the study. Consideration of the problems existing in the practice of analysis, assessment and use of expert opinions by public prosecutors, and their causes. The study of the methodology for the implementation of this activity as a combination of:a) theoretical principles and practical methods, research methods that the prosecutor applies to assess the relevance, admissibility, reliability of the expert’s opinion; b) a system of principles and methods for studying the laws in accordance with which the process of this assessment proceeds. The author briefly considers the principles of: a) legality; b) science; c) systemic; d) objectivity included in the set of principles on which the assessment of the expert’s opinion is based. The author proposes the sequence of the prosecutor’s decision to analyze and evaluate the expert’s opinion, considered as the most rational way of this activity. The set of questions clarified in this case is considered both as a task and as a set of objects of assessment. These objects are divided into two groups, depending on the nature of the main issues to be solved; 1) concerning the assessment of the possibility of using one or another expert opinion as evidence of a charge in court; 2) relating to the definition of tactics of their submission to the court and participation in their research. The article provides examples of the use of individual research methods and assessment of expert opinions: comparative legal, analogy, analysis and synthesis. The results of the study . The analysis and assessment of the expert’s opinion is a complex cognitive process that requires legal and special knowledge, practical experience, knowledge of the methodology of this work from prosecutors. Its use in compliance with the principles that it is based on is one of the ways to increase the professional level of public prosecutors.

state prosecution, expert opinion, assessment of evidence, analysis of evidence, assessment methodology, principles, assessment methods