AUGUST 1992: The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the results of a polygraph examination conducted by a private firm as part of a police investigation were public records. The ruling stated that the Tampa Police Department improperly refused to give James P. Wiser the results of his polygraph, claiming that the test was not part of the records because it was held by a private polygraph examiner. The city was ordered to pay Wisner's attorneys' fees and court costs to obtain test results.

AUGUST 1992: The state Department of Environmental Regulation paid $3,875 to a non-media party, Floral Greens International, for unlawfully withholding an environmental study conducted by the University of Florida in which Floral Greens was a subject.

JUNE 1992: A Palm beach circuit judge ruled that the Royal Palm Beach Village Council violated the Sunshine Law when it sold a parcel of land. The judge voided the sale and reserved jurisdiction to award costs and attorneys' fees.

JUNE 1992: The Osceola School Board settled a public records dispute with Orlando Sentinel . The paper agreed not to collect attorney's fees awarded by the trial judge and the school board agreed to drop its appeal and to open all meetings concerning public business. An Osceola County circuit judge had ruled that the school board violated the Sunshine Law and ordered the board not to hold any more closed-door meetings. Circuit Judge R. James Stroker also awarded more than $15,000 in attorneys' fees to the Orlando Sentinel in the ruling, which the school board had appealed.

APRIL 1992: A Dade circuit judge ordered the Miami Police Department to release a civil forfeiture file closed in 1991 to a reporter for the Dade County weekly Miami New Times. The newspaper, which was investigating allegations of corruption in the handling of civil forfeiture cases by former Assistant City Attorney Beverly Linton, sought the file under the state Public Records Law.

FEBRUARY 1992: The state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services paid $44,250 in legal fees to The Tampa Tribune. HRS lost a public records lawsuit over internal reports examining cases in which children dies from abuse and neglect.

DECEMBER 1991/JANUARY 1992: A Lee County circuit judge voided an action of the School Board of Lee County and awarded more than $30,600 in attorneys' fees to the plaintiffs in a Sunshine suit against the school board. Judge William C. McIver ruled that the school board and a committee created by the board violated the Sunshine Law by not properly advertising their meetings.

NOVEMBER 1991: Palm Beach Circuit Judge Stephen A Rapp ordered the Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority to pay $17,548 to reimburse Magill Properties for attorneys' fees in a public records lawsuit over a two-page letter on solid-waste removal and treatment.

NOVEMBER 1991: The St. Petersburg City Council and the Chicago White Sox agreed to pay half each of a $100,000 legal bill incurred by the St. Petersburg Times in a Public Records Law case. The case arose from the 1988 negotiations with the baseball team to play in the Florida Suncoast Dome and a refusal by the team to provide the newspaper with access to the draft lease. The Times donated $57,836 to the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information.

NOVEMBER 1991: The city of Delray Beach, having lost a public records lawsuit, settled an attorneys' fee claim by Michael Barfield, a non-media plaintiff seeking access to police investigative records, for $15,000.

MAY 1991: The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services paid $3,568 in attorneys' fees and court costs to the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. HRS paid the fees after losing an appeal in the 4th District Court of Appeal. The agency had sought to withhold records pertaining to hospitals cited for refusing to accept patients.

FEBRUARY 1991: Palm Beach County Sheriff Richard Wille paid $5,000 in attorneys' fees after the court found he had unlawfully withheld documents from a private investigator.

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