What Makes a Verbal Contract Legitimate?

Hi I’m Reed Bloodworth founding partner of Bloodworth Law. Today I’m going to talk about what makes a verbal contract legitimate?

What Makes a Verbal Contract Legitimate?

First, what’s makes a verbal contract legitimate? Well, a verbal contract is just like a written contract; it has the same basic elements.

• There has to be an offer.
• There has to be an acceptance.
• There has to be something that you’re actually negotiating over of value.
• AND the parties must have the capacity to enter into that contract.

If you have those basic elements if you want to enter into a verbal contract.

Verbal Contracts vs. Written Contracts

There are certain things you may not be able to enter into a certain contract on verbally. Those things are governed by the Florida statute of frauds and very common ones are real estate transactions. You’ve got to have it in writing. Verbal contracts aren’t legal for real estate in Florida.

Some other things might be agreements that are going to last longer than one year: those include12-months or more contracts which are needed in writing.

However, if you and I entered into a verbal agreement for me to sell you some books for $300, we can negotiate that and enter into that contract and that would be a binding agreement.

Verbal Contracts Are Enforceable

Now these are the types of things that make a verbal agreement enforceable. So there are circumstances which when people enter into verbal agreements disputes arise. This is a lot of times because you don’t have the writing to go back and say exactly what the agreement was. 

Verbal Contract Example

An example might be a client verbally allows someone else to use their license for a particular project. They agree on it. The client says all right I’m going to take 10 percent of the profit from this project and you will be allowed to use my license. They shake hands. The project goes forward.

The person who’s using the license perhaps they pay the 10 percent out of one project. However some time down the road the client discovers that person used my license for many other projects for which I was unaware and as a result of our agreement I should get paid on all these other agreements all these other projects.

That’s a situation where a dispute has arisen and you have a verbal agreement you might want to bring a lawsuit to enforce that.

So in summary verbal contract are enforceable in certain situations and in certain situations they’re not. They have the same basic requirements as a written agreement.

You’ve got to have an offer. You’ve got to have acceptance. You’ve got to have something of value negotiated over. You need capacity.

When I say capacity you need to be of age so over 18 and have your full mental faculties about you.

 Plaintiff? Defendant? We Represent Both

At Bloodworth Law we represent both plaintiffs and defendants relating to disputes arising from verbal agreements.

For plaintiffs we offer multiple payment options. We have contingency options pay by the hour options and hybrid options.

For defendants we have pay by the hour fee options and flat fee options.

So if you have any questions of if you’re involved in a dispute pertaining to verbal agreements verbal contracts give me a call. Let’s talk about what happened to you.