Legal Definitions - suppress

To suppress, in a legal context, means to actively prevent something from being revealed, presented, or considered. This often involves taking formal steps to stop information, evidence, or a particular action from becoming public, being used in a legal proceeding, or continuing to exist.

Here are some examples illustrating how this term is applied:

• Imagine a criminal trial where the defense attorney believes that the police obtained certain evidence, like a suspect's statement, without following proper legal procedures. The attorney would file a motion to suppress that statement, arguing that it should not be allowed as evidence in court because it was collected illegally.

  This example demonstrates suppression because the attorney is attempting to prevent specific evidence from being presented to the jury and used against their client.

• Consider a situation where a journalist uncovers sensitive government documents that reveal misconduct. A government agency might seek a court order to suppress the publication of these documents, arguing that their release would jeopardize national security.

  Here, the government is trying to prevent information from being seen or known by the public, illustrating the act of suppression to control the dissemination of potentially damaging material.

• In a civil lawsuit involving a product defect, the manufacturing company might try to suppress an internal engineering report that details known flaws in their product. They would argue that the report is proprietary information and not relevant to the case, hoping to keep it from being seen by the opposing legal team or the jury.

  This scenario shows the company attempting to prevent specific information from being revealed and used as evidence against them in court, which is a clear instance of suppression.