West Virginia citizens with concerns about the state's judicial system will have an opportunity in Huntington on Friday to learn more about the issues and offer their opinions on possible solutions.

We encourage them to take full advantage of the occasion, because all of us have a stake in how justice is carried out in West Virginia.

Taking place on Friday is the first of three public hearings scheduled by the Independent Commission on Judicial Reform. The panel was established by Gov. Joe Manchin to delve into how the state's court system is set up, how its judges are chosen and whether the system does enough to ensure that people have their day in court.

The first session runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and will be held in Room 2W16 of Memorial Student Center on Marshall University's campus. Its focus will be on judicial campaign finance and reporting, which have been among many hot-button issues in recent years. Subsequent hearings will be Sept. 21 in Morgantown, which will explore options for judicial selection, and Sept. 29 in Charleston, where discussions will center on creation of an intermediate court of appeals and courts of chancery to deal with business disputes.

Several speakers are scheduled to participate in each of the sessions, including lawmakers, judges, legal experts and media representatives. Specific topics for Friday's hearing are public financing of judicial elections and regulating campaign expenditures by independent groups. A full agenda is available at the commission's Web site, www.judicialreform.wv.gov.

Each session also allows time for public comment.

An examination of ways to reform West Virginia's court system is long overdue. The state has taken some steps to overcome its image as "tort hell" and a place where judges are viewed as anti-business. But more needs to be done on other fronts.

Recent Supreme Court elections have featured special interests pouring millions of dollars into campaigns to elect judges favorable to them, thus casting doubts on the judiciary's fairness. Ethics issues abound, as judges refuse to recuse themselves from cases involving parties who donated heavily to their campaigns. The process has raised questions, rightly, about whether judges should be appointed rather than elected.

These hearings are a first step in a process that eventually could yield solutions to the problems that plague the state's much-criticized legal system. Usually, any process produces the best result when a broad range of perspectives are presented and considered.

Don't pass up your chance to learn more specifics about the issues and provide your perspective.

National Video