The paper examines the problems of legal support for forensic expertise in civil law proceedings. A comparison is made between the scope of legal regulation and current clarifications of the norms of law on judicial practice, set out in the acts of the highest court, in relation to different forms of legal proceedings. Based on a comparison with the criminal process, the conclusion is drawn about the incompleteness and objective obsolescence of the resolutions of the Plenums of the highest judicial instances on arbitration and civil proceedings. Among the most significant changes in recent years, which are proposed to be taken into account in the current recommendations to the courts, are the appearance of a list of types of forensic examinations conducted exclusively by state forensic expert institutions, as well as a change in the payment procedure for forensic examinations in civil proceedings. It is concluded that the conceptual and regulatory proximity of approaches to the institute of forensic examination makes it possible to combine civil processes with a common list of issues that should be taken into account in the development of resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation at the present stage. A version of the relevant range of issues is proposed.