Financial and material ensuring of forensic expert activity: problematic and practical aspect

Abstract

The report examines the current problems of financing and insufficient financial support for the activities of scientific research institutions of forensic expertises of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, in particular the legislative and practical unsettledness of the issue of payment of the cost of conducting a forensic examination in the case of the appointment of an examination on the basis of a relevant court decision and the imposition of the obligation to pay the cost of such an examination on a participant in the trial, but failure by the subject of the trial to comply with such a decision regarding the payment of the cost of the examination for various subjective and objective reasons; objective and topical grounds for determining the cost of forensic examination through the prism of the cost of one expert hour, etc. The practice when after issuing an invoice, sending a petition and the expiration of the terms defined by the normative legal acts, the forensic expert is forced to draw up a notification of the impossibility of providing an opinion (hereinafter – Notification) or the SRIFE sends the customer a letter about leaving the court's decision on the appointment of a forensic examination without execution, has been analyzed. The most common reason for drawing up a Notification is complete or partial dissatisfaction with the expert's petition, and the reason for sending a letter to the court about leaving its decision unfulfilled is non-payment of the cost of the expert examination. The expert is not obliged to send a petition together with the invoice, but is actually guided by the interests of the parties, speeding up the examination. Currently, the drafting of the request requires certain expenses of expert hours, and in case of non-payment of the invoice, these hours remain unpaid. For the implementation of the above-mentioned actions, forensic experts spend their time, labor and mental resources, and SRIFE – material and technical resources, but in case of non-payment of the invoice, they do not receive any financial and material compensation for the spent resources. The article summarizes that the forensic expert always spends a certain amount of time for a preliminary review of the materials provided, for drafting a petition, etc. And this time must be taken into account and paid for not only during examinations in criminal proceedings, but also in all other types of judicial proceedings. The possibility of making relevant legislative changes is under consideration, for example, the introduction of the concept of «advance payment for expert examination», which will significantly affect the issue of underfunding of expert institutions and, to a certain extent, limit persons who apply for the appointment of an expert opinion from abusing their procedural rights and from delaying the court process. Key words: Payment of the cost of conducting a forensic examination, leaving the court decision unenforced, notification of the impossibility of providing an opinion, financing of research institutions of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, forensic examination.