Challenges in Involving a Specialist by a Defense Counsel in Civil Proceedings

The article studies the problems of attracting a specialist defense lawyer in criminal proceedings. The author examines the main reasons for the opposition of government entities to the right of the defense to present a specialist’s report, which contains a revision of the expert’s report. The legal positions of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on issues of expert evidence are noted. In addition, the researcher turns to practical examples of both negative rejection of a specialist’s conclusion as unacceptable criminal procedural evidence, and the positive practice of perceiving a specialist’s conclusion as a basis for ordering a repeat forensic examination and even termination of a criminal case. Ultimately, the author concluded that it is necessary to reform the domestic criminal process in order to increase the efficiency of attracting a specialist defense lawyer as a means of countering criminal prosecution.