Every American with a television has seen the commercials of civil attorneys who are out to make an easy buck from a client's misfortune.

Although the Republican-led Congress intends to help all American people by changing how those attorneys do business, the suggested means will produce an undesirable result. The people helped by these proposals make up a small percentage of Americans associated with big business. Instead, successful reform of the legal system must take into account the common citizen who lacks the monetary resources of large corporate interests.

The House of Representatives passed the legislation quickly last week. But the Senate must be more cautious when voting to overhaul the legal system.

One of the major provisions would encourage personal injury cases to settle out of court by forcing the loser to pay the winner's court costs. The seeming advantage is that the current legal logjam could be considerably lessened. The subtle negative is that in high-profile cases such as medical malpractice, an out-of-court settlement will keep the case out of the news. Also, a lower-class worker wronged by a medical juggernaut may lack funds that the corporation has discouraging poorer people from pursuing their claims.

In another provision, Republicans have proposed penalization of lawyers who file frivolous suits. Reducing the number of unnecessary cases that go through the legal system is an admirable goal, but once again, the suggested method is flawed. Attorneys who are penalized by courts may not pay the fine instead passing those penalties on to their clients. Those potential penalties, which could amount to severe financial losses, will be yet another burden that discourages poorer Americans from suing large businesses.

The Republican initiative also calls for national standards limiting punitive damage awards at $250,000. Again the measure favors corporate America. By setting a general monetary limit, individual cases, such as the recent example of a man who had the wrong foot amputated, would be limited to monetary reparations that fall short of the actual worth of the lost limb. Most current awards for punitive damage already amount to less than $250,000, and the new proposal would affect a minute number of cases. The effect would be to again limit an individual's ability to pursue damages at the expense of big business.

There is no argument against pursuing some reform within the American legal system. However, the proposed Republican initiaves are severely slanted toward the interests of large corporations.

From a Republican-led government that promised to reform government for the good of all American citizens, these legal reform proposals betray the image of change and reek of political hypocrisy.