North Carolina law says that public bodies -- your city council or school board or airport authority or publicly owned hospital -- can be sued if they refuse to release documents they generate or receive. But even when a court finds that the body broke the public records law, withholding documents that any member of the public has a legal right to see, a judge can decide not to order the public body to pay the plaintiff's legal expenses.

Several candidates for governor wisely believe that provision should be changed.

Let's grant -- for the moment -- that most governments want to do the right thing. That's of little comfort when an individual or group requests what's legally theirs and is turned away. Nor is it any comfort when they are forced to take on a powerful entity whose legal fees are paid for by the very public that is being stiffed.

The argument sometimes is made that entities that withhold documents but do so in good faith ought not to be assessed legal fees.

That might be reasonable -- except that usually, officials refuse to part with a public record because the underlying issue is controversial, or because they want to protect, say, a company with which they are doing business. The temptation, in other words, is to protect themselves or others. State law shouldn't provide them the shield.

Making public bodies pay legal fees if they lose a public records dispute also gives them an incentive to follow the law. And in fact, the burden should be on public bodies to make materials accessible. Residents should not be required to pry it out.

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