MAY 1985: A circuit judge ordered the Polk state attorneys' office to pay $2,568.50 in attorneys fees and court costs to The Ledger, Lakeland. The Ledger won the suit in 1985 after then-State Attorney Quillian Yancey refused to release records involving investigations completed by his office.

FEBRUARY 1984: The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that Thomas R. Julin and Terri Wood, who as University of Florida law students sued in 1980 to open the selection process of a law school dean, were entitled to $37,500 in attorneys fees from the university. The Florida Supreme Court had remanded the question of fees to the 1st District in 1983, after ruling that the activities of a search committee should have been open to the public. Total fees in the case eventually came to $70,000. Julin, Wood, and Gainesville attorney Sandra Bieber-Allan contributed $50,000 from the award to the FOI Clearing House at the University of Florida (now the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information).

MAY 1981: The Miami Herald and The Miami News were awarded attorneys' fees totaling more than $70,000 in a public records lawsuit filed against the Metro-Dade Police Department. The Herald, which was awarded $53,330.30, filed the suit after Public Safety Director E. Wilson Purdy refused to release certain internal police records. The News, which later joined the suit, was awarded $20,229.92.

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