Can you Break a Dental Associate Contract?

Can you break a dental associate contract? The most important thing in this video is what do you consider breaking a contract. In my mind, it could be two things and the analysis of those two things are very different. First, breaking a contract could mean you have signed an employment agreement, but have decided not to go through with it. And so, in that mind, I think that would be considered breaking the contract. And then the second one would be, you’re in a current agreement and you want to get out of it, is that considered breaking a contract? The first one, yes, I would consider breaking a contract. The second one is just terminating the agreement, probably not breaking the contract.

Let’s just take for instance, you’ve signed an agreement, and you don’t want to go through with the job. In that scenario, let’s say you’re in your last year of training. You’ve been approached by practice, and they say, hey, we’d like you to come in, be a dental associate, you negotiate, sign the agreement, and then something happens, or you don’t want to go through with it. Could be a family issue, could be a better job opportunity, I mean, there are several things that could make someone not want to go through with it, but how do you handle that scenario? Well, one, it may state in the agreement, if the dental associate doesn’t start, these are the consequences, and it could be a penalty. They may say there’s liquidated damages like a monetary amount that you must pay because you’re not going to start.

It could come after you for recruitment fees or any credentialing fees that they’ve paid to get you credentialed, if they assisted in your licensure, any of those types of things. Breaking the contract, meaning, deciding not to start could open the dental associate to liability. Now, I find most employers are fairly understanding for a couple of reasons. One, if somebody doesn’t want to be there, they don’t want to force someone to start or make a big stink about them not coming. Now, the longer notice that you can provide the employer, the more likely it is that it can be an amicable break. If you have an employment contract and your supposed to start on July 1st and on June 30th, you say, oh, by the way, I can’t start. Well, that employer is going to be angry. Unless there’s tremendous excuse, they may come after you for small damage. Other blogs of interest include:

• Difference Between a Dental Associate Offer Letter and a Contract
• How to Negotiate a Dental Associate Contract

And when I say come after you, they could sue you, or if there’s an arbitration clause, they could go to arbitration about it. If you have more notice, you just need to come to the employer and say, look, the situation has changed. I really apologize for backing out. However, due to these reasons, I just can’t start. I appreciate all that you’ve done for me. I was looking forward to starting here, but I’m trying to give you as much notice, you can find someone to replace me. In that scenario, most employers will be understanding and won’t make a big deal out of it. That’s breaking the contract if you’ve signed it and don’t want to start.

Now, if you’re in a current employment agreement and you just want to get out of it, well, I don’t consider that breaking the contract. There’s going to be a language in the agreement that states how you can get out of the term. A contract can be terminated usually in one of four ways. One, there could be a fixed term, meaning, how long the contract is, and there’s no language about renewing, meaning, there’s no automatic renewal language in the contract, the term ends, neither party want to renew it, the contract is done, and the contract terminates. You could terminate a contract by mutual agreement, meaning, both parties say, you know what, this isn’t working out. We can both go out of it, no harm. That’s it. The other one would be a breach of contract. If one of the parties is breaching the contract, let’s say the employer isn’t paying on time, or there’s bonus structure and that they’re not paying the dental associate the proper amount.

Well, in that scenario, the dental associate would provide written notice to the employer saying, you’re in breach of contract. Normally, they’d have a short period to fix the breach, it’s called a cure, somewhere between 15 to 30 days. And then, if they did fix it in that period, then the contract couldn’t be terminated for cause. The last way, and usually the most, I guess, common way for a contract to be terminated is called without cause termination. Without cause termination, and this is probably what some people may think, is breaking a contract. It means any party can terminate the agreement at any time, for any reason, with a certain amount of notice to the other party. For most dental associate contracts, that’ll be somewhere between 30 to 90 days. And in that scenario, if the dental associate wanted to terminate the agreement, they would just in writing, give the employer proper notice.

If it was 60 days, they give them 60 days’ notice, they say, per the agreement, here’s my 60 days’ notice, my last day of work will be this, appreciate the opportunity. And that’s it. I guess the only way you could break the contract, meaning, be in breach of contract would be if you gave notice but it wasn’t enough. If the contract said 60 days and you only gave 30, well, they could come after you for damages like lost profits, replacement, recruiting fees, and all that type of thing. And then sometimes, in the agreement, it’ll state, if the dental associate leaves in a certain amount of time, they’ll have to pay back signing bonuses, relocation assistance, credentialing, licensing, all those types of fees as well. So, can you break a contract? Well, yes, you can break a contract, but there will be repercussions. But for the most part, if your contract has without cause termination, it gives you options to get out of the agreement at any time.

And if you have a contract that doesn’t have without cause termination, do not sign that contract. It is an enormous red flag. Normally, that means the employers had a very difficult time retaining dental associates. And so, they’re trying to make certain they can’t leave within a certain period. You absolutely do not want to be in that position.