Tampa Bay’s workplaces thrive by retaining top employees.

Five years ago, the United States experienced the worst recession in decades.

           

The recession caused a drop in real estate business, crippled business that created goods, and nearly halted tourism. Yet, despite this failing in business, Tampa was still littered with real estate companies, manufacturers, and hotels.

The question quickly became, “How are these companies overcoming the financial downfall and still maintaining their work force?”

Now we see that the economy is slowly becoming healthy again. Profits are coming in and employees are beginning to feel a bit better about their earnings. So the concern for most employers this day is – “How do we keep our best workers?” Many companies will agree that maintaining their best workers is a priority.

Contrary to popular belief – it’s not as simple as handing out more money.

Bay Area Legal Services has a strong strategy. They make sure that every employee has important work to do and in position to do that work effectively through the use of training.

A debt collection firm, Hunter Warfield, employees receive quarterly evaluations and there is communication between superiors, peers, and teammates twice a year. This was beneficial to the organization’s communication and team building.

Understanding generational difference is important also, because every individual is different especially the comparison between those born in the mid 90’s and now the early 90s in the work place. Work, life, and community service can mean more to some employees than just a big pay check. Some prefer recognition and others are just looking for fun in the workplace.

There are many surveys that have been done and the majority point to the positives as being better benefits and the negatives being those ever so dreadful time clocks. It is a dynamic of making the work place fun, supportive, engaging, and productive that makes employees wish to stay.

Marcadis Singer, PA

Florida Collection Attorney

5104 South Westshore Blvd.

Tampa, Florida 33611

info @ marcadislaw.com

(888) 547-1881

(813) 288-1881

New Clients 

Ext. 247 Gil Singer

Ext. 240 Ralph Marcadis

Existing Client Client Liaison

Ext. 242

To Pay a Claim

Ext.  245

Keep access to online access to court records free

The judicial system in Florida has taken a step closer to the 21^st century as a recent ruling by the Florida Supreme Court now allows people access to court documents online.

This new ruling will allow people to stay at home and look at documents instead of parking at the Broward County courthouse, which has an astonishing $8 an hour parking fee – the most expensive fee in the South Florida area.

The Florida Supreme Court’s decision will allow most civil and criminal cases to be put online. There are a number of exceptions: Juvenile, mental health, probate and family court records (divorces included) though they can be still be viewed at the courthouse. All information that could be used for identity theft such as bank information and Social Security numbers have been removed from the documents.

Florida’s clerks are going to have a challenge on their hands, as they have to digitize a plethora of records all the while keeping the service free of charge for everyone accessing the courthouse.

The process has been smooth thus far, as Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, Sharon Bock of Palm Beach County, is expected to have all of her district’s records online halfway through 2015. It’s expected to be completely free.

The Florida Legislature is not particularly fond of funding the courts so there is worry that the system may struggle.

Florida has struggled with funding courts. This was clear when three years ago Governor Rick Scott had to approve a nearly $20 million emergency loan to keep the courts running.

It is important to mention that the funding of courts should be done by state lawmakers. Online access to court records should not be a new way to make money, but to promote access for the public.

The progression towards online documentation has been a work in progress for some time. The wait has a lot to do with privacy concerns, but paper documents have been digitized for the past while.

Manatee County has been a power house in online record access as it has already tested easy access to records void of personal information.

Privacy for the records is essential, but now the next step is maintain a solid budget without excess fees hampering the public from court records.

Marcadis Singer, PA

Florida Collection Attorney

5104 South Westshore Blvd.

Tampa, Florida 33611

info @ marcadislaw.com

(888) 547-1881

(813) 288-1881

New Clients 

Ext. 247 Gil Singer

Ext. 240 Ralph Marcadis

Existing Client Client Liaison

Ext. 242

To Pay a Claim

Ext.  245

http://www.marcadislaw.com

Ways to help minimize your medical debt.

For most customers, paying medical bills out of pocket is out of the question. According to an analysis by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, 1 in 3 families struggle to pay their medical bills. Even some people with insurance struggle and people with both high and low incomes can be overwhelmed by mounting medical bills.

Having medical debt can be stressful and be crippling in the long-run.

Here are some steps one can take to aid in dealing with medical debt.

·      Be sure to follow up with your doctor and or hospital before treatment to determine what the expenses will be and how much any insurance you have will cover. It’s important that you let your healthcare professional know if you are strapped for cash and cannot pay the bill ahead of time. This will help you plan ahead to pay for bills that you may not otherwise be able to cover. Patients of all types can often qualify for programs that will help pay for medical costs.

·      Ask your doctor about the prices of Medicare to see if you can get a cheaper price than the individual offer price. More often than not, Medicare can save you a lot of money.

·      Always double check your bills. As of 2010 a Commonwealth Fund study found that nearly 9 million people were contacted by a debt collection agency because of billing mistakes.

·      Be sure to save the “Explanation of Benefits” from your insurance company as it is often the most reliable way to know how much money you will owe.

·      When you receive the bill from your hospital or doctor, make sure that the insurance company’s payments are included. There can sometimes be a problem between your insurer and the doctor and there just has yet to be a payment from the insurance company.

·      Always double check what plan you bought for your insurance. If you have purchased a silver plan, you may qualify for cost-sharing subsidies which may aid in bringing down the out of pocket costs.

·      Credit cards can be dangerous when paying for medical debt. Interest rates can be particularly high and can be difficult to pay off, so be careful when paying with them!

·      It is always incredibly helpful to have a close friend or family member to help you with finances if need be. Sometimes it can take a lot of research to know what is what, and you may be too sick to do it for yourself.

·      There are many resources that can offer you help and or information such as the consumer affairs office or office of the attorney general. Nonprofit counseling services are in abundance and may be able to help with legal services.

Marcadis Singer, PA

Florida Collection Attorney

5104 South Westshore Blvd.

Tampa, Florida 33611

info @ marcadislaw.com

(888) 547-1881

(813) 288-1881

New Clients 

Ext. 247 Gil Singer

Ext. 240 Ralph Marcadis

Existing Client Client Liaison

Ext. 242

To Pay a Claim

Ext.  245

http://www.marcadislaw.com

Bad Debt - Expensive Mistakes

Mistakes can be expensive – particularly if you do not learn from them. Mistakes that are repeated can create a massive hole in your wallet.

When a company has a bad debt write off, it may be within the company’s best interest to evaluate and examine whether or not the credit risk was properly handled and monitored. Also, it is important to determine whether or not the account was managed correctly when there was reason to believe the customer was financially compromised. These may be some important questions to ask:

• Who was involved in making the credit decision?
• Was everything properly documented?
• When was the last time the credit file was updated?
• What occurred to indicate that the debtor was financially compromised, and what was done about it during that time?
• What was done to collect the balance owed?
• How long did it take for management to be informed of the issue?
• Were appropriate measures taken to prevent the problem initially, and to mitigate damage done to the creditor company once the problem came to light?

An objective review of the credit situation is imperative, and should be examined with the whole credit team. The reason behind this is not to embarrass any member in the team, but to encourage growth. This will in turn (in theory) reduce the chances of the company losing money because of a similar problem sometime down the road.

Marcadis Singer, PA

Florida Collection Attorney

5104 South Westshore Blvd.

Tampa, Florida 33611

info @ marcadislaw.com

(888) 547-1881

(813) 288-1881

New Clients 

Ext. 247 Gil Singer

Ext. 240 Ralph Marcadis

Existing Client Client Liaison

Ext. 242

To Pay a Claim

Ext.  245