DESCRIPTION OF THE OBJECT IN THE EXPERT OPINION: TECHNOLOGICAL APPROACH

The paper considers the issues of the evidential significance of the expert opinion. It explains how the specified characteristic of the examination depends on the argumentativeness of the expert opinion, the text accessibility of the examination for the perception of the criminal process participants who do not have special knowledge. In the conditions of adversarial proceedings, the expert should convince the entities evaluating his opinion of the reliability of the findings. The authors considered the expert’s interaction with other participants in criminal proceedings as a communicative activity. Verbal and non-verbal means of substantiation of the findings by the expert are considered from the scientific point of view of communicative pragmatics and the theory of argumentation. The paper reveals the prospects of introducing a technological approach into the practice of forensic examinations. The concept of forensic technology is interpreted as a system of operations, that is, rational actions of forensic experts for the optimal use of the resources at their disposal. Forensic technologies are designed to provide a reliable, scientifically sound and reasoned forensic examination result. Technologies of this type contain algorithms for generating the text of the expert opinion. The paper shows that the argumentative qualities of the examination are determined by the accuracy and consistency of the description, the completeness, and clarity of the presentation of the studied objects. In the structure of forensic technology, the authors suggest that the unit for compiling the text of the expert opinion should be expanded through formalizing the description of the studied objects. The ways of optimizing the text of the expert opinion are outlined. The requirements to the adequacy and completeness, relevance and reliability, objectivity and information content of the description of the object are formulated. The following requirements for the presentation of objects of the examination are justified: minimization of verbal means, elimination of ambiguous terms, and the accessibility for the perception of participants in legal proceedings. Recommendations are given on the naming the common features of the studied objects.