VENICE, Fla. — The southwest Florida city of Venice must pay nearly $750,000 in legal fees for the plaintiff in a settled lawsuit regarding violations of the state's Sunshine Law, a Sarasota County judge ruled on Sept. 25.

The payment will bring the total cost spent on the lawsuit over access to public records to about $1.4 million.

"I'm fairly confident this is a record award in Florida," said Barbara Petersen of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee. "It makes everyone sit up and take notice."

Plaintiff Anthony Lorenzo, president of the nonprofit Citizens for Sunshine, filed the suit last year.

In it, he alleged that Venice Mayor Ed Martin and several city officials had violated Florida's open-records and -meetings laws by using private e-mail accounts to discuss public business.

The city reached a settlement acknowledging the violations in March.

Venice had argued that the settlement resembled a similar one proposed by the city months before, and that lawyers should be denied compensation for any work since then.

"The city believes that plaintiffs' lawyers were simply padding their billings," Circuit Judge Robert Bennett wrote in Citizens for Sunshine, Inc. v. City of Venice.

The judge rejected that argument, finding there were substantial differences between the two settlements.

First Amendment advocates have said the case highlights the importance of public-records laws in an electronic age.

"It again drives home the point: It doesn't matter whose AOL account you're using ... if you're a government entity and you're discussing public business, those documents are going to be public record," Peterson said.

Pam Johnson, the city's public information officer, said the city is "grateful to have this behind us so we can carry on with our real work."