CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I'm looking forward to making my annual trip from Cleveland to take part in the Charleston Regatta. I look forward to seeing old friends, running in the Distance Run and attending some great concerts in a city almost heaven to me. I just hope I don't get distracted by the propaganda spread by the West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse and the West Virginia Citizens Defense League.

It looks like these groups are indirectly trying to convince people that their ideas will help remove Charleston from the Forbes America's Fastest Dying Cities list.

In a recent Gazette commentary, WV CALA executive Steve Cohen said, "a few greedy personal-injury lawyers suck more than a billion dollars from the state's economy." Cohen seems to blame the flight of young professionals from West Virginia on trial lawyers and who he insinuates are greedy plaintiffs.

I fail to see the connection between alleged "big verdicts" and young people leaving West Virginia. Mr. Cohen fails to mention how much money the insurance industry sucks from West Virginians. I challenge every reader to watch the next WVU football game and try to spot an absence of any insurance company advertising for 10 consecutive minutes. During the course of the game, you'll probably see commercials of insurance companies trying to appear like friendly neighbors. If the insurance industry (what I'm sure Cohen really means in his commentary as "prosperous fields") is suffering so much in West Virginia's "broken lawsuit system," where do they get all this money to advertise? How does the insurance industry profit in the billions each year? Who is really responsible for all the lawsuits - the lawyers and their permanently injured clients - or the insurance company that offers $750 to cover a client's $20,000 in medical bills and their pain and suffering for the rest of the client's life?       

It doesn't cause brain drain to see where the insurance companies make their money. They make it off of adjusting claims of injured victims using computer programs with powerful, sinister names like Colossus. For example, every day in this country, victims who are rear-ended and sustain lifelong herniated discs are being offered $750 total, and their lawyers are forced to file lawsuits.

The insurance companies utilize a Deny, Delay and Defend strategy to make their billions. Then, when a lawsuit is filed, they rely on folks like Mr. Cohen to smear the good names of trial lawyers and perpetuate spin suggesting that all accident victims are malingerers. For those of you who believe that, you'll be in good hands if you are struck by a vehicle insured by Allstate. Google the term "McKinsey Documents," and learn how Allstate sought the best methods to devalue injury claims in order to make the most money. Then look up insurance companies' profits.

Who is really responsible for all of the lawsuits? Is it the injured victim who seeks over $750 in compensation for the fact he can no longer throw a baseball or bathe his children, or is it your neighborly "good hands" insurance company who pads its pockets full of billions each year by paying no more than $750 to people who are permanently injured and who do not file lawsuits?

I agree with Mr. Cohen about one aspect. The civil legal system in West Virginia should be reformed. But I believe it can be repaired by reforming and reinstituting insurance third-party bad faith claims to circumvent these types of insurance claim evaluations, which are causing these colossal injustices to victims.

If Steve Cohen's organization is so concerned about lawsuit abuse, it should target insurance companies and any gun group that pushes a lawsuit to declare the Charleston handgun ordinance unconstitutional pursuant to the recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller. As I understand one aspect of this recent debate, some gun owners want to be able to carry their guns in buildings such as City Hall. In Heller, the Supreme Court completely butchered its prior precedent in U.S. v. Miller and held that individual gun ownership is protected under the Second Amendment. However, the Supreme Court also opined that city ordinances prohibiting "the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings" should not be placed in doubt. Charleston's City Hall is clearly a sensitive place and a government building. Filing a lawsuit to declare this ordinance unconstitutional will clearly be frivolous and should be attacked by CALA, the seemingly self-proclaimed guardians of courthouse doors throughout West Virginia.

As I sit at Taylor Books, have my morning coffee and look forward to seeing Puddle of Mudd at Regatta, I'll also hope that I'm not distracted by what appears to be the West Virginia Citizen Defense League's answer to bringing revenue into the city. It didn't surprise me that the gun group distributed leaflets suggesting that if people were able to purchase more than one gun a month in Charleston, the city would generate thousands in tax revenue. Is this group suggesting that deregulating handguns in Charleston is going to financially save the city and perhaps get Charleston off the Forbes list?

How many guns have to be purchased in one month for Charleston to earn over $10,000 in tax revenue? Where would those guns go? To protecting homes and property pursuant to West Virginia's new absurd castle doctrine? To defend the innocent? No, many of the additional guns would go on the streets and in the hands of thugs. Some people in West Virginia forget that there is a world outside of their rural areas where having a gun to protect their families makes some sense. Good people forget that the guns that they are eager to buy and carry are also coveted by bad people in areas much different than their own.

I look forward to coming back to Charleston each year because I love its people, its atmosphere and its special role in my life. If Steve Cohen and the gun lovers of the Citizens Defense League have their way, I'll still look forward to coming to Charleston next year. I'll just have to get accustomed to meeting more undercompensated victims of accidents while insurance companies place that money they saved into naming rights to more ballparks and college football bowl games.

Is this the Charleston you want to live in? Is this the Charleston that will bring back young professionals and get Charleston off the Forbes list? You decide. I'll look forward to coming back to Charleston regardless. I just hope it's to a place where justice is bettered for the injured and where guns and the violence that comes with them stay out of City Hall and Taylor Books.

Burnside, a trial lawyer in Cleveland, is a 1999 graduate of the University of Charleston and a former employee of the West Virginia Senate and Kanawha County Public Defender's Office.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I'm looking forward to making my annual trip from Cleveland to take part in the Charleston Regatta. I look forward to seeing old friends, running in the Distance Run and attending some great concerts in a city almost heaven to me. I just hope I don't get distracted by the propaganda spread by the West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse and the West Virginia Citizens Defense League.

It looks like these groups are indirectly trying to convince people that their ideas will help remove Charleston from the Forbes America's Fastest Dying Cities list.

In a recent Gazette commentary, WV CALA executive Steve Cohen said, "a few greedy personal-injury lawyers suck more than a billion dollars from the state's economy." Cohen seems to blame the flight of young professionals from West Virginia on trial lawyers and who he insinuates are greedy plaintiffs.

I fail to see the connection between alleged "big verdicts" and young people leaving West Virginia. Mr. Cohen fails to mention how much money the insurance industry sucks from West Virginians. I challenge every reader to watch the next WVU football game and try to spot an absence of any insurance company advertising for 10 consecutive minutes. During the course of the game, you'll probably see commercials of insurance companies trying to appear like friendly neighbors. If the insurance industry (what I'm sure Cohen really means in his commentary as "prosperous fields") is suffering so much in West Virginia's "broken lawsuit system," where do they get all this money to advertise? How does the insurance industry profit in the billions each year? Who is really responsible for all the lawsuits - the lawyers and their permanently injured clients - or the insurance company that offers $750 to cover a client's $20,000 in medical bills and their pain and suffering for the rest of the client's life?       

It doesn't cause brain drain to see where the insurance companies make their money. They make it off of adjusting claims of injured victims using computer programs with powerful, sinister names like Colossus. For example, every day in this country, victims who are rear-ended and sustain lifelong herniated discs are being offered $750 total, and their lawyers are forced to file lawsuits.

The insurance companies utilize a Deny, Delay and Defend strategy to make their billions. Then, when a lawsuit is filed, they rely on folks like Mr. Cohen to smear the good names of trial lawyers and perpetuate spin suggesting that all accident victims are malingerers. For those of you who believe that, you'll be in good hands if you are struck by a vehicle insured by Allstate. Google the term "McKinsey Documents," and learn how Allstate sought the best methods to devalue injury claims in order to make the most money. Then look up insurance companies' profits.

Who is really responsible for all of the lawsuits? Is it the injured victim who seeks over $750 in compensation for the fact he can no longer throw a baseball or bathe his children, or is it your neighborly "good hands" insurance company who pads its pockets full of billions each year by paying no more than $750 to people who are permanently injured and who do not file lawsuits?

I agree with Mr. Cohen about one aspect. The civil legal system in West Virginia should be reformed. But I believe it can be repaired by reforming and reinstituting insurance third-party bad faith claims to circumvent these types of insurance claim evaluations, which are causing these colossal injustices to victims.

If Steve Cohen's organization is so concerned about lawsuit abuse, it should target insurance companies and any gun group that pushes a lawsuit to declare the Charleston handgun ordinance unconstitutional pursuant to the recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller. As I understand one aspect of this recent debate, some gun owners want to be able to carry their guns in buildings such as City Hall. In Heller, the Supreme Court completely butchered its prior precedent in U.S. v. Miller and held that individual gun ownership is protected under the Second Amendment. However, the Supreme Court also opined that city ordinances prohibiting "the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings" should not be placed in doubt. Charleston's City Hall is clearly a sensitive place and a government building. Filing a lawsuit to declare this ordinance unconstitutional will clearly be frivolous and should be attacked by CALA, the seemingly self-proclaimed guardians of courthouse doors throughout West Virginia.

As I sit at Taylor Books, have my morning coffee and look forward to seeing Puddle of Mudd at Regatta, I'll also hope that I'm not distracted by what appears to be the West Virginia Citizen Defense League's answer to bringing revenue into the city. It didn't surprise me that the gun group distributed leaflets suggesting that if people were able to purchase more than one gun a month in Charleston, the city would generate thousands in tax revenue. Is this group suggesting that deregulating handguns in Charleston is going to financially save the city and perhaps get Charleston off the Forbes list?

How many guns have to be purchased in one month for Charleston to earn over $10,000 in tax revenue? Where would those guns go? To protecting homes and property pursuant to West Virginia's new absurd castle doctrine? To defend the innocent? No, many of the additional guns would go on the streets and in the hands of thugs. Some people in West Virginia forget that there is a world outside of their rural areas where having a gun to protect their families makes some sense. Good people forget that the guns that they are eager to buy and carry are also coveted by bad people in areas much different than their own.

I look forward to coming back to Charleston each year because I love its people, its atmosphere and its special role in my life. If Steve Cohen and the gun lovers of the Citizens Defense League have their way, I'll still look forward to coming to Charleston next year. I'll just have to get accustomed to meeting more undercompensated victims of accidents while insurance companies place that money they saved into naming rights to more ballparks and college football bowl games.

Is this the Charleston you want to live in? Is this the Charleston that will bring back young professionals and get Charleston off the Forbes list? You decide. I'll look forward to coming back to Charleston regardless. I just hope it's to a place where justice is bettered for the injured and where guns and the violence that comes with them stay out of City Hall and Taylor Books.

Burnside, a trial lawyer in Cleveland, is a 1999 graduate of the University of Charleston and a former employee of the West Virginia Senate and Kanawha County Public Defender's Office.