The article examines the issues connected with the urgent need to overcome the uncertainty of information in a criminal case by the judge’s search and cognitive means and the necessity to research the forensic-investigative situation. The conducted analysis substantiates the need to include into the conceptual apparatus of criminology the category of «problem-search forensic investigative situation» which is understood as the most mentalizing kind of investigative situation generated by the judges’ (judge’s) mental activity flowing in the information field, limited, on the one hand, by the materials of the preliminary investigation; on the other, by regimented procedure of the evidence examining in the hearing and decision on the merits. The conclusion is made about the allocation of the two phases of problem-search forensic investigative situation: 1. Statement of the main problem in the criminal case means to overcome the uncertainty of information. 2. The search of a problem solution, which should include search and cognitive means of judges (judicial tactics techniques) and forensic forecasting.