The attorney representing the lead plaintiff in the federal lawsuit said he hopes the verdict sends a message to public officials about the “reckless handling” of personal information.

Bucks County and its jail violated the privacy rights of tens of thousands of former inmates, which will cost it an estimated $68 million in punitive damages in what could be a precedent-setting federal class action suit, a jury decided Tuesday.

Following two hours of deliberations, a federal jury at the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia awarded what will amount to $1,000 for each violation of the Criminal History Records Information Act, known as CHRIA, which would be divided among the roughly 67,000 class members and its attorneys.

The damage award is mandatory because the jury found the county “willfully” violated federal law when it posted criminal information online of individuals held or incarcerated at the Bucks County prison from approximately 2011 until 2013. The case is considered significant because it’s the first time the court has set a standard for what actions rise to the level of a willful violation of CHRIA.

“We are gratified by the jury’s verdict. We believe that the jury sent a message to Bucks County and all other government entities that reckless handling of private, personal information this time in the form of criminal records will not be tolerated,” said attorney Jonathan Shub, who represents the original plaintiff in the case Daryoush Taha, of Sicklerville, New Jersey.

Bucks County spokesman Larry King said Tuesday evening that the county commissioners had just learned of the decision and would have no immediate comment.

“The county may have more to say on this matter” Wednesday, King added.

Taha originally filed his lawsuit in 2012 alleging it violated his civil rights when it included his arrest information and mugshot on a publicly accessible website of Bucks County Corrections inmates.

Bensalem police arrested Taha in 1998 on charges of harassment, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was later accepted into a one-year trial diversion probation program for first-time nonviolent offenders, which he completed, and his arrest information was ordered expunged in January 2000.

Eleven years later, Taha alleges that he learned that his arrest information and mugshot appeared on a searchable electronic database that Bucks County created that listed individuals held or incarcerated at its county jail. After Taha filed his federal civil suit, the county removed all inmate mugshots and most arrest information from the lookup tool in 2013.

The suit originally included multiple defendants including Bensalem Police and Mugshots.com LLC, but they were dropped, leaving only the county and its correctional center as defendants.

The civil case had already secured several critical judgments favoring Taha and class members including that the county violated the CHRIA, when it posted arrest information and mugshots. The statute prohibits counties and county jails from releasing criminal information except to other agencies.

While the judge did not award Taha actual damages because he did not contend that he suffered any economic losses as a result of his arrest information being posted online, because the county was found to have willfully violated CHRIA it entitles Taha and class members to mandatory punitive damages of $1,000 to $10,000 for each violation.