Conceptual basis of forensic evidence in civil jurisdiction and the need to improve the legislation regulating them

The topical issues of introduction of novelties and changes to the civil procedural legislation of Ukraine regarding judicial evidence in civil proceedings have been studied. Having carried out an analysis of the legislation and the existing views of scientists, the characteristic features of judicial evidence were established and the concept of judi-cial evidence in the civil process of Ukraine was improved, which constitutes the mental and procedural activity of the subjects of evidence (the court, participants in the case, representatives), which is regulated by the norms of civil procedural and material law and aimed at establishing the circumstances (facts) that are important for the decision of the case, and which consists of the collection, presentation, research and evaluation of judicial evidence.
It is argued that not all subjects of civil procedural legal relations are subjects of evidence in civil proceedings. Subjects of evidence in civil proceedings must include such subjects of civil procedural legal relations as: the court, participants in the case, representatives. It has been proven that other participants in the trial cannot be the subjects of evidence, as they have no legal interest in the results of the case, they are involved by the court to facilitate the correct and timely consideration and resolution of civil cases, and they also do not take any actions related to evidence.
The means of proof in civil proceedings have been specified, the content of the concept of electronic evidence as a means of proof has been analyzed and disclosed, and its main features have been singled out. It has been established that a document as written evidence and an electronic document are different in their content, form, order of presentation, etc. It is proposed to renew in the norms of civil procedural legislation such a means of proof as explanations of parties, third parties and their representatives.
Issues related to the evaluation of evidence and such features as the reliability and sufficiency of the evidence were studied. The main standards of proof «balance of probabilities» are described. It was concluded that the standard of proof «balance of probabilities» is used both in judicial practice and in the science of civil procedural law, but in fact there is no understanding of the essence of the standard of proof, its nature, nor are they analyzed how it should be applied and the consequences of its application.
Theoretically based proposals on improving the current civil procedural legislation of Ukraine on the researched topic have been formulated.