MARCH 2008: The Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to pay 75 percent of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's attorney fees, totaling more than $146,000, to end the legal battle over the release of identifying information of disaster aid recipients after the 2004 Florida hurricane season.

FEBRUARY 2008: The News-Press (Fort Myers) recovered $105,000 in attorney fees after a successful lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for the release of information about disaster aid recipients following the 2004 Florida hurricane season. The News-Press and its sister Gannett Co. Inc. newspapers, The Pensacola News Journal and Florida Today, sued after the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a branch of the department, refused to release recipients' names and addresses to the paper.

MARCH 2007: The Tampa Tribune received $28,106 from the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau to pay the newspaper's legal fees in connection with a public records lawsuit against the bureau. The payment ended a dispute between the newspaper and the visitors bureau over bid preparation for the 2008 Republican National Convention. Tampa lost to Minneapolis in its bid to host the event. The bureau initially refused to release the documents, and the newspaper filed suit claiming that because the city delegated the governmental function of preparing the bid to the bureau, the documents were public records.

JUNE 2006: The federal government and five news organizations agreed to pay former nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee $1.6 million to settle his privacy lawsuit. The Energy and Justice Departments are accused of violating his privacy rights by leaking information to the press. The settlement will also end contempt of court proceedings against five reporters who refused to disclose their sources.

JUNE 2006: Pinellas county was ordered to pay the St. Petersburg Times’ legal expenses related to a successful public records lawsuit. A circuit judge ruled that Pinellas County violated the Public Records Law when it refused to release a settlement agreement between the county and a former employee. Since the county lost the lawsuit, it must pay the newspaper’s $19,806 legal bill.

MAY 2006: A doctoral student who sued University of Florida President Bernie Machen for failing to provide some public records was ordered to pay the university's court costs of approximately $1,300. A circuit judge ruled against Charles Grapski in the public records suit.

MAY 2005: Highlands County was ordered to pay a Sebring man court costs and attorney’s fees for a lawsuit he filed after being charged $65.12 to inspect a hurricane committee’s public records. In considering Preston H. Colby’s lawsuit, Circuit Judge David Langford ruled that the county could charge residents to inspect public documents. However, Judge Langford found that the 30 percent surcharge for employee research time could not be charged.

JANUARY 2004: The 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that Hernando County must pay the attorney’s fees of the Coalition for Anti-Urban Sprawl and the Environment (CAUSE). CAUSE filed suit against the county in 2002 over a Wal-Mart Super Center. The group claimed that the development review committee meetings violated the state’s open government laws by excluding the public and, therefore, Wal-Mart’s permit should be invalid. The court found that the meetings did violate the Sunshine Law, but did not invalidate the permit.

APRIL 2003: Dunedin officials agreed to pay more than $3,600 in legal fees to the Liberty Council of Orlando in a settlement reached after the Liberty Council sued the library for not allowing the group to use its public meeting room. The public library declined the religious group access to its meeting room on two occasions, citing that the library’s policy did not allow political, religious and formal social meetings and programs to use the room, exercising separation of church and state. The city will now change its policy, allowing programs of a political or religious nature to use the room.

MARCH 2002: The Miami Herald won $331,000 in legal fees from Dade Aviation Consultant after the Third District Court of Appeal ruled the company’s efforts to keep documents secret could be criminal. The Herald first sued the consulting firm in 2000 after it refused to turn over records indicating how much the firm paid lobbyists who helped win a county contract to manage Miami International Airport’s $5.4 billion expansion project. At that time, the judge said the company did not have to pay legal fees and the Herald appealed.

OCTOBER 2001: The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has paid $10,000 in lieu of attorney's fees to The News-Journal of Daytona Beach after the office refused to release requested jail transportation logs. The Sheriff’s Office argued that releasing the records would have violated the confidentiality of inmate medical records. Sheriff Jim Manfre settled with the newspaper to pay $10,000, which the newspaper will use to support a Sunshine Law seminar.

JUNE 2001: The Sanford Housing Authority Board agreed to settle a lawsuit with two tenants who claimed the board violated the state Open Meetings Law when they made an agreement behind closed doors allowing four former board members to resign. The housing board members will pay $24,000 in the settlement; $5,000 to the tenants and $19,000 in attorney's fees.

JUNE 2001: Since a 1997 ruling against Prison Health Services for withholding public records from The Ledger of Lakeland, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office has asked Chief Judge Charles Curry, 10th Judicial Circuit, to force the newspaper to pay its legal bills. The Sheriff’s Office argued that the newspaper should have sued only the Prison Health Services and never involved the Sheriff’s Office in the suit. Curry refused to require the newspaper to pay the legal fees, ruling the lawsuit was not frivolous and that public records requests did not have to be put in writing.

APRIL 2001: The Florida Supreme Court ordered Memorial Hospital-West Volusia, Inc. to pay an estimated $100,000 in legal fees to the Daytona Beach News-Journal after the Court ruled that a Public Records Law exemption governing some hospital records cannot be applied retroactively. The 1998 statute exempts records of public hospitals that are leased to private companies, and the newspaper sued for the pre-1998 records of the hospital.

DECEMBER 2000: A judge ruled that Martin County commissioners violated the Sunshine Law by meeting in closed-door sessions after The Palm Beach Post filed suit against the county. The judge ordered the county to release written transcripts of the meetings and to pay the newspaper’s attorney fees.

NOVEMBER 2000: Judge Manuel Menendez Jr., 13th Judicial Circuit, ordered the Tampa Palms Community Development District supervisors to pay attorney fees for former supervisor, Bob Doran, who sued the district in 1999, citing four Sunshine Law violations. The community development group will pay $40,000 in legal fees.

NOVEMBER 2000: The St. Petersburg Times was awarded $4,750 in legal fee reimbursement after the newspaper filed suit with the city of St. Petersburg when they refused to provide a reporter with copies of public documents. The city has since turned over all documents, and the newspaper is donating the money from the lawsuit to local charities so that community residents are not penalized by their local government actions.

DECEMBER 2000: The Town Council of Golden Beach agreed to pay more than $15,000 in legal fees for three town officials, including more than $7,000 for a councilman accused of a Sunshine Law violation. Council member Al Paruas was involved in an Open Meetings Law case in 1999 after he ejected a resident from a November meeting. Investigators with the State Attorney’s Office are still investigating the case. Paruas’ current legal fees add up to $7,125.15.

SEPTEMBER 2000: Judge Gasper Ficarrotta, 13th Judicial Circuit, ordered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football organization to pay legal fees after refusing to turn over public records revealing how they made money from publicly financed Raymond James Stadium. The Hillsborough County Commission was awarded $32,500 and the Tampa Sports Authority $15,000 in the suit.

SEPTEMBER 2000: The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office has been ordered to pay legal fees after attorney John Cascone requested records from the office via certified letter. Nine days after the request, Cascone requested a court order, which states the sheriff’s office must release the records as well as pay legal fees.

MAY 2000: A circuit court judge ordered that the Escambia County School Board members attend a seminar about access to government information and pay the plaintiff $904.92 in expenses after failing to provide school board members’ e-mails and an e-mail address book to a parent.

MAY 2000: The Miami Herald brought a public records suit against the mayor of Hialeah after the mayor’s office refused to hand over records of phone calls received in the office. When the mayor provided the records, the newspaper dropped the suit. The mayor paid the newspaper $500 in legal fees.

JANUARY 2000: Hillsborough County Judge Edward Ward has ordered Tampa General Hospital (TGH) to pay $65,000 in attorney fees to the St. Petersburg Times and $227,131 to The Tampa Tribune. The newspapers had filed and won public records suits against TGH. In October, Ward had ruled that the hospital's records were public, even thought the hospital converted from a public to a private non-profit corporation in 1997. Lawyers for the hospital are appealing the ruling and award.

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