I'm not suggesting putting   or CGI::pre within a -label parameter. I was suggesting outputting them after the checkbox call (and you would have to call checkbox individually for each desired checkbox.)

If you want to use checkbox_group, you'll need your own, like tye suggested. You could modify your CGI.pm (which will probably bite you in the long run), create a new package that subclasses it, or copy CGI's checkbox_group code into your own stuff and modify it there.