As a dentist signing a dental employment contract, the terms of the contract will impact your patient load and your day-to-day life. Your dental contracts will help you protect your business and assets as a dental practice. Working with an attorney to draft your dental employment agreement will help you protect yourself and your business. If you already have existing dental practice employment contracts, an attorney can review your contract and identify any red flags to be improved upon.
Discuss Your Case With a Dental Practice Employment Contract Attorney
At Mahan Dental Law, our attorneys have extensive experience handling all of the legal issues commonly brought up in private dental practice. In addition to drafting dental practice employment contracts, our attorneys can also help you by reviewing and revising them. We understand that you’ve worked hard to develop your dental practice. Contact a dental employment contract attorney today to schedule your initial consultation.
Employment Contract Drafting
Dental practice employment contracts are an obligatory and pervasive part of nearly all legal and business transactions. Using a well-drafted dental contract can help you clearly state all of the responsibilities of the involved parties, protect legal rights, divide liabilities, and ensure future relationship states. Dental employee contract drafting and negotiation can be a long and challenging process. Nonetheless, proper drafting is a must to ensure that your rights as an employer are being protected.
There is too much at risk for dental employers to take contract drafting into their own hands. In addition to stating professional implications, the terms of the contract can impact the relationship between the employer and employee. Employee contracts can also affect patient care and workplace productivity. There are many important terms and clauses that address issues for dental practices, such as:
- Industry-standard time-off
- Non-compete clauses
- Term length
- Termination language
- Professional liability insurance provisions
- Repayment obligations of the employee
The Benefits of Dental Practice Employment Contracts Drafting
In addition to carefully specifying all of the employer/employee relationship terms, working with a dental contract attorney can help you minimize future disputes. The attorneys at Mahan Dental Law have extensive experience drafting and reviewing dental practice employment contracts for new or established dental practices. By working with an experienced dental contract attorney for your drafting, you can ensure that you’ll be able to communicate the expectations of the dentist’s role, duty, benefits, duration of employment, and compensation. You will be in a better position to avoid potential litigation.
The Financial Benefits of Working With a Dental Contract Attorney
Working with an experienced dental contract attorney can also provide you with financial benefits. The cost of working with an attorney can outweigh any costs associated with liability from potential lawsuits from your future employee. A single lawsuit can cost thousands of dollars, or potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. The legal team at Mahan Dental Law is dedicated to ensuring that you are protected through well-drafted contracts.
Terms to Include in Your Contract
Each dental contract is unique. However, nearly every dental contract should include several important terms, regardless of the location of the dental practice. When these essential terms aren’t spelled out clearly in the dental contract, disputes can arise due to disagreements between the employee and the employer. For example, suppose the employee is expecting to work Monday through Thursday. The employer is expecting the employee to work Monday through Friday, but the dental contract doesn’t state the dentist’s hours. Had the employer and employee agreed to a work schedule in the dental contract, this conflict could be avoided early on. Dental agreements should include the following provisions:
- Patient care duties for the dentist
- Whether the dentist will be given extra time for administrative tasks
- Days and weeks that the dentist is expected to provide patient care
- Locations that the dentist will be required to provide care at
- Whether the dentist is able to work locum tenens outside of the job
- Whether the dentist will ever be on call for after-hours office work or hospital calls
- Annual base salary and pay period frequency
- Whether the base compensation will increase over the term of the dental contract
- Detailed description of the employment benefits offered
- Amount of paid time off that is offered
- Whether the employee will receive compensation for continuing medical education (CME)
- Whether the business will cover licensing, and DEA registration
- Whether a signing bonus will be offered and when it will be paid
- Whether the office will cover professional liability insurance
Non-Compete Clauses And Dental Employment Contracts
As an employer, you may ask your employee to sign a non-compete agreement as an employer. Non-compete agreements require an employee to abstain from working with competitors after leaving the dental practice. Not all non-compete agreements are enforceable in court. Courts will find non-compete agreements enforceable if they are deemed unconscionable or excessively unreasonable for the employee. Courts will uphold non-compete agreements in the following cases:
- Restraint isn’t more than what is required to protect the employer
- Contract doesn’t inflict any untold hardship to the employee
- Contract doesn’t injure the public
If you are interested in requiring an employee to sign a non-compete clause, we recommend working with an attorney. One of the attorneys at Mahan Dental Law will carefully review your contract to ensure that it complies with your state’s contract laws. If we see any red flags, we will identify them and help you change the contract to protect your interests better.
Contact a Dental Contract Attorney Today
If you’re a dentist or a dental practice, ensuring that your dental contract is legally valid will help you protect yourself. The potential financial benefits of working with an attorney to draft and review your dental practice will likely outweigh the cost of working with an attorney. Drafting effective dental contracts can help you avoid litigation in the future. Contact Mahan Dental Law today to learn more about our dental contract review attorneys.
