offices administered by the practice. This is particularly important when considering the contract’s restrictive covenant; you do
not want to be potentially elbowed out of a community because
you worked a few days a year in a satellite office.
6. How can you be fired?
One of the most overlooked provisions of a dental associate contract is the termination provision. Most contracts provide for termination for serious issues, which are to be expected; if an
assistant finds you comatose in the bathroom with a needle of
heroin in your arm, you probably deserve to be fired. But most
contracts also feature grounds for termination based on
extremely vague and legally undefinable phrasing like “moral
turpitude” or “injurious to the reputation of the practice”. There
are only a handful of lawyers in this country who cannot fit anything you do into phrases like that, which essentially renders your
contract terminable at will.
7. Is your restrictive covenant reasonable?
There is no hard-fast rule for measuring whether a restrictive
covenant is reasonable. A restrictive covenant’s enforceability
depends on duration of employment, how many offices the practice has, how spread out those practices are, the office’s branding,
how dense the population is, and innumerable other facts that
vary in importance state to state, community to community.
What’s most important is that mileage is
typically more important than time, and
that often dentists are more interested in
being able to take along staff rather than
patients to their new job. The worst
approach to an unreasonable restrictive
covenant, however, is not to ignore it on
the promise that it will not be enforceable;
many banks will not lend to you for your
new venture if a potential lawsuit is looming. Instead, it’s best to negotiate the best
terms possible, and then abide by them.
financially devastating for those who work in practices that
receive payments several months after billing. Finally, many contracts obligate you to finish any outstanding treatments, which
can be impracticable for those moving away, for those whose new
employers will not grant the time off, or for those not getting paid
to complete that work.
9. This list is not all-inclusive.
Each dental associate contract presents its own unique issues,
and therefore each contract must be read in its own context. All
relevant factors must be considered, including the practice’s
plans for you, your plans for the practice, the owner’s reputation,
standards in the local dental employment marketplace, and any
other additional issues identified by your experienced attorney.
Joseph L. McGregor specializes in dental law,
with particular focus in practice acquisitions,
practice startups, and dental employment
agreements. His Dallas-based firm writes or
reviews over 300 dental associate agreements each year. Joseph is a 2007 graduate
of the J. Rueben Clark Law School at
Brigham Young University.
8. What are your termination obligations?
One day your employment will end. It’s
important to understand what obligations
are expected for that time. Many contracts
have a fixed term, meaning that you cannot
voluntarily quit before the first year without penalties or other expensive consequences. Additionally, if you fail to give
timely notice of your voluntary exit, will
you have to pay any penalty fees? It’s
becoming increasingly common that once
you turn in your notice, the practice will no
longer be obligated to pay you for your
accrued but unpaid collections. This can be
Let me compete for all of
your practice financing needs.
Jared Treesh
AVP – Commercial Lender
201 W. Ellison | Burleson, TX 76028
(817) 426-7017 | Cell (682) 225-0011
[email protected]
www.communitybank-tx.com
www.northtexasdentistry.com
|
NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY
13