This article examines the specifics of legal regulation of the procedural status of a specialist in the criminal procedure law of Russia. It is pointed out that the procedural status of a specialist is not sufficiently regulated in relation to the procedural status of an expert as participants in criminal proceedings. The author reveals the essential elements of the procedural status of a specialist as a person with special knowledge and its legal uncertainty. The article analyzes the constituent elements of the procedural status of a specialist, which include not only the rights and obligations of a specialist, but also guarantees of their implementation. The significance of the goals and objectives of the specialist’s participation in the criminal process as elements of its procedural status is revealed. The procedural function of a specialist is defined as the function of promoting justice. The article presents and analyzes the data of judicial practice on the issue of assessing the admissibility of the conclusion and testimony of a specialist as evidence in a criminal case, in the context of the implementation of elements of the procedural status, that is, in terms of competence, disinterest, responsibility of the specialist, goals and objectives of his participation in the process. The author reveals the ambiguity of judicial practice in the issue under study, as well as the tendency to deny the evidentiary value of the conclusion and testimony of a specialist, due to the lack of the necessary level of regulation of the procedural status of a specialist in the current legislation. The author defines the regulation of the procedural status of a specialist in the current legislation as an element of the procedural status itself, identifies its insufficiency, and formulates a thesis about the need for its proper regulatory regulation in modern criminal procedure legislation.