North Carolina has a strong tool - a legal crowbar, if you wish - that members of the public can use to pry loose information from the government that, by law, is supposed to be a matter of public record. But there's a problem: Sometimes the crowbar becomes too heavy to lift.

That is the drawback in relying on citizens to invoke, through legal action or the threat of same, the state's public records law, while knowing full well that they may have to bear every nickel of the expense themselves. Did we say nickel? In fact, the expense of hiring an attorney and pursuing a public records lawsuit can run into the thousands of dollars.

The county commissioners or town council members who stonewall a records request can use taxpayers' money to fight their legal battle. But the aggrieved resident who takes on City Hall does so with no guarantee that his legal fees will be reimbursed if he prevails. Judges are empowered to make such awards, but in practice most successful public records plaintiffs wind up bearing most of the cost of their efforts.

John Bussian, a lobbyist for the N.C. Press Association, noted in a recent N&O article that Florida and Texas are among the states that provide for automatic reimbursement of a plaintiff's legal fees when a court rules that there was a public records violation. That would be a sensible reform in North Carolina.

Would news organizations that pursue public records suits stand to save some money? Doubtless so. But in matters such as this, the press acts as a surrogate for the public at large in ferreting out information that is supposed to be available.

It would be logical for a government that thumbed its nose at the public records statute to have to cover the prevailing party's legal expenses, whether that party was a newspaper, TV station or citizen acting on his or her own.

Anyway, a news organization doing its duty won't be deterred by the prospect of paying a lawyer. Private citizens might be. Allowing them to recover expenses if they win in court would make it far easier for them to wield the government accountability tool that's wisely been provided.