Nearly every day at The Ventura County Star, we seek public records.

These are vital to answering questions that might otherwise stay in the dark.

Not all our requests are honored. When that happens, we weigh the cost of litigation against the value of the public’s trust.

Mass shootings are of the utmost public concern. That’s why, since shortly after a gunman opened fire inside the Borderline Bar & Grill in November 2018, The Star has sought answers through public records.

Many of those requests were fulfilled but autopsy records took nearly five years and many court battles — up to the California Supreme Court — to obtain.

These records could provide a timeline to match against police and witness accounts. They could uphold or undermine official accounts. The Star has an obligation to protect the innocent and minimize harm. We also have a responsibility to the truth.

We knew that the first two officers entered the club within 20 minutes but were stopped when one was shot — and later died. Officers waited another 23 minutes to go back into Borderline.

We sought the autopsy records, in part, to evaluate whether any of the 11 victims might have lived had first responders reentered the club sooner.

We had been told that none of the victims of the Borderline shooting would have lived, even with an earlier reentry, but only the most basic details of their deaths had been released.

Without the autopsy records, which are public under California law, we could not evaluate official accounts. This proved critical for tragedies like Uvalde where responding officers to the shooting at Robb Elementary School initially told a tale of heroism. The evidence, as the Austin American-Statesman learned, revealed an entirely different story — that 77 minutes ticked away before officers acted.

The Star sought the Borderline records to verify what we were told.

Mass shootings are chaotic. They’re fraught with danger and fear. Minutes matter. In the confusion and panic, people’s accounts change or degrade.

The Woolsey Fire started outside Simi Valley the next day, sweeping through Ventura and Los Angeles counties and taking attention off the shooting.

While some eyes went elsewhere, The Star continued to ask if any one of the 11 civilian victims inside Borderline would have lived with an earlier entry.

As we fought to open the records in court, we also worked to ensure proposed legislation aimed at keeping these records private for good didn’t pass. In the end, we succeeded on both fronts.

All the while, we have been criticized and accused of seeking to expose intimate details about the victims. When we got the records, we did what journalists do: We shared what the documents told us. Nothing more.

Our fight, in tandem with the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, ensures other news outlets — from community weeklies to digital nonprofits to large metro dailies — and everyday citizens have the right to access these records.

Now, we’re seeking fees for the cost to get the records.

Open records lawsuits are expensive to pursue. Requesters, even media companies, could not take on these battles without the hope of recovering attorney fees if they are successful.

That is why California law permits judges to award attorney fees to a successful requester. These fees are usually awarded against the government but can be awarded against others who sue on their own initiative to block release.

This case took years to pursue and went all the way to the state’s highest court, which declined to hear it. The media requesters won at nearly every step, but the result was a long and costly battle.

We are seeking a fee award that reflects the cost of this battle and includes responding to the filings of the County of Ventura and those who separately sued. Under state law, if we don’t seek an award against all the opponents of disclosure, we risk not receiving any fee award at all.

Moreover, we think it an important principle that costs be awarded in open records matters that reflect the true time and expense. It sends a strong message to opponents of transparency in future cases.

We hope and expect the court will award fees in their entirety against the county. But no matter the award, the Ventura County Star intends to pursue any fees awarded to it only from the government.

Stacie N. Galang is the news director of the Ventura County Star. She can be reached at 805-437-0222 or stacie.galang@vcstar.com.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: The Star is seeking fees for an open records case. Here’s why