Read Anything Before You Sign It!

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

Every week, we have a show of the week.

I put a tremendous amount of thought into these broadcasts.

Part of my thinking is what can the average individual get out of them.

We’ve had a lot of excellent sports broadcasts and there are some non sports subjects that stand out.

Last week, on the South Florida Tribune Podcast, Coral Springs based attorney Ron Renzy talked about something everybody should take seriously.

The title of this story is what the broadcast was about.

“Read Anything Before You Sign It.”

Here are the examples of things we discussed.

1. Non-compete clauses. These will haunt you all the time because if you don’t read them from the first letter to the final punctuation mark, they could prevent you from making a living.

2. Employment Agreement is if you don’t adhere to what the employer is specifying, you could either not be hired or get terminated. Many of these agreements consist of a credit and background check.

3. Purchase of Sale of Home is something all homeowners should read in order to avoid issues later. Home inspections are things that come up in this case.

4. Purchase of Sale of Car is another situation that could be problematic and costly.

5. Purchase of Sale of Valuables Such as Gold Coins and Art.

6. Contract for Sale of Any Goods.

7. Contract for Services.

8. Copyright of Trademark License which is what I’ve been dealing first hand as I’ve gone through the extensive process of obtaining one for “The Motor City Mad Mouth.”

9. Sports Memorabilia is an interesting one as there are items that should be authenticated to make sure they’re real and worth the value being asked.

10. Extended Warranties should not be taken lightly in order to determine what’s covered and what’s not covered. This is an area where you could easily be scammed especially by a telemarketer over the phone. If you purchase one for an automobile at the dealership, this could give you peace of mind, but they’re expensive.

The bottom line is be careful about pretty much by any agreement. If you make a mistake, hiring a lawyer to get you out of a situation could be quite costly especially for something that many of us view as common sense. We all fall into this trip because we don’t take the extra step to be cautious.

While all of these are important, I can’t emphasize enough that be careful of the Non-compete clause!

Ron Renzy is a regular on The South Florida Tribune Podcast and we’re colleagues at The Coral Springs Chamber of Commerce.

You can listen to this broadcast by clicking the link below.