“In addition to their clients, an insurance agency’s most important asset is their reputation,” explains Ms. Bonczyk. “The guide is intended to assist an employer in the hiring and interviewing process of new employees and to provide some practicable insight and tips on dealing with difficult employees, including their termination”.

“It takes years to build a business and can take only one mistake to ruin it,” according to Angelo Gioia. “This is a practicable guide and resource that every insurance agency should read and use as an effective risk management tool in hiring and supervising employees.”

“As a new professional association, our primary objective is to educate insurance agents & brokers and to provide them with both tools and solutions to their everyday problems,” says Mr. Gioia. “Each of our previous chapters has examined and dissected insurance topics and coverage issues that every insurance agent and broker should know”. Written by prominent lawyers from around the country who focus on complex insurance matters, the eBook is part of an ongoing series of publications produced by Agents of America (AoA).

The eBook will be available to both members and non-members of AgentsofAmerica.ORG. To download this and previous chapters, go to http://agentsofamerica.org/aoaebooks.php

About Kathleen Bonczyk

Kathleen M. Bonczyk maintains an Of Counsel relationship with Long Marmero & Associates, LLP, and 44 Euclid Street, Woodbury, NJ 08096. Phone: (856) 848-6440; Fax: (856) 848-5002. http://www.longmarmero.com/

Bonczyk is a consultant and attorney whose area of practice is limited to insurance and labor and employment law. She is former human resources professional with an extensive corporate background. Over the years, Ms. Bonczyk has trained hundreds of executives, managers and supervisors on various topics related to equal employment opportunity and labor and employee relations. Additionally, she coaches, counsels, and advises employers on human resources matters and conducts on-site workshops, audits, and investigations into allegations of discriminatory hiring practices, wrongful termination, retaliation and harassment, among other matters related to the employment life cycle.

About AgentsofAmerica.ORG and Teach & Reach Program AgentsofAmerica.ORG is an Insurance Agent’s Association and indispensable resource for news, products, services, education, and industry information throughout America. The organization’s mission is to deliver the BEST people, products, information, and services to agents all designed to help them manage and grow their business and provide ongoing value to their clients. Our motto is “Bringing the BEST Together”. AgentsofAmerica.ORG is offering a FREE MEMBERSHIP and FREE EBOOK to anyone interested in learning about the valuable benefits the new organization offers. All members are eligible for additional discounts and access to an extensive array of other membership programs. Visit www.AgentsofAmerica.org for more information.

AoA’s Teach & Reach program gives insurance agents and brokers numerous tools to help grow their businesses. The comprehensive “Teach & Reach” program includes, Access to Social Media Expertise, Webinars and Education, E-Newsletters, E-Books, Featured Articles, Tools and Tips

Watch for our Weekly Tips on How to Incorporate Social Media into your business in addition to our Featured Monthly Article in our E & O Prevention Newsletter. Finally, stay tuned for our Social Media Webinars starting in the fall. Each webinar will include valuable information on Social Media that you can incorporate into your business.

See the link on Scottrade here

To read more go to Yahoo News by following this LINK

Cooper told of health-care law
Friday, April 16, 2010 – Gloucester County Times
By Christina Paciolla
cpaciolla@sjnewsco.com

Several health-care professionals at Cooper University Hospital in Camden learned a little more about what the health-care reform law means to them.

A panel of experts Ð led by Anthony Mazzarelli, medical director of emergency medicine at Cooper Ð were at the hospital on Thursday afternoon to explain the bill’s specifics and what can be expected at a hospital level.

“Our goal was to give you experts to help educate you on this bill,” Mazzarelli said.

The experts on hand were Sanford M. Barth, of the Graduate School of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University; Roland D. McDevitt, director of health-care research at Towers Watson’s Research & Innovation Center in Arlington, Va.; Pete Parvis, health-care attorney for Venable LLP; and Marcus Rayner, executive director of the New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance.

After President Barack Obama signed the nearly $1 trillion health-care overhaul bill recently, health-care attorneys like Parvis have been breaking down the bill so parts can be understood easier.

Mazzarelli said that he and other officials have been closely scrutinizing Massachusetts. There, a 2006 health care reform law mandated that nearly every resident get a state-government-regulated minimum level of coverage for health care.

“Emergency room visits increased 7 to 10 percent,” said Mazzarelli. “I am presuming we will see an increase similar to that.”

With so many millions more people able to obtain coverage over the next few years under the health-care bill, Mazzarelli said that hospital officials are studying trends now to better prepare them for a possible increase.

Right now, the changes to health care haven’t been felt too much on the hospital’s end, Mazzarelli said, but understanding the bill and knowing which parts will be implemented when is important.

Thursday’s panel discussion was recorded and will be made available soon so every health-care professional at Cooper can benefit.

“Our goal would be to provide the best possible care we can,” said Mazzarelli. “That’s why we want to understand this bill.”

Every good contract must address:

• Who are the parties?
• Who will be held responsible to perform in the agreement?
• What is being contracted for? (the sale of goods, purchase of real estate, etc.)
• What does each person have to do?
• In what order will they perform? The more specificity the better as the contract is the roadmap for the deal.
• What happens if one or both parties fail to perform as described?
• Who pays attorneys’ fees and costs, if either party has to sue over the contract?
• Where can litigation be filed?

Of course this is not an exhaustive list but it is a good start.

Any person can write a contract or go to an office supply store or online and create a contract from a basic template. However these courses of action cause problems when you attempt to enforce the contract.

When you ask yourself, “why do I need a contract?”, the answer is to make the other party to the contract perform as they agreed to perform. After all if both sides do what they say they will do, the contract is never an issue. A template, cookie-cutter contract will seldom address the breakdown of a broken contractual agreement.

You can probably anticipate that I, a lawyer, am going to recommend you have a lawyer draw up or at least review with you any contract you intend to enter where the issue at hand is worth more than five hundred or a thousand dollars. With contracts, as with many things in life, you get what you pay for. A few hundred dollars invested on the front end will protect your interests and you will become a better educated legal consumer.

We enter into a hundreds of contracts during our adult lives. Investing in learning about contracts and making sure the most valuable of those contracts are written in your best interest is a wise move. Be wary of any person who offers you a contract but does not want to give you a few days to have an attorney look over the document.

If you would like for my assistance with writing a contract or reviewing a contract that you have been offered please contact me. I look forward to serving you and I hope this short document has helped you better understand the basics of contracts.

If you would like to learn more about contracts and contract law I recommend Jay Feinman’s book, Law 101, specifically Chapter 6 on Contracts.

James E. Schroeder is an attorney at Long, Marmero & Associates with offices in Woodbury, Egg Harbor City and Medford.