Part IV in a Series about the Statute of Frauds

This article is the fourth in a series of articles covering the Statute of Frauds. Here we examine whether the various napkins, emails, letters and other writings that you have jammed into your manilla folder or saved without any organization in mind on your computer qualify as a “writing” for purposes of meeting the requirements of the Statute of Frauds.

Continue reading “We Have Evidence of Our Contract: Is it Enough to Qualify as a Writing?” »

Part II in a Series about the Statute of Frauds

This article is the second in a series of articles covering the Statute of Frauds.  We previously discussed that an agreement that is not capable of being performed within one year from the date of the contract, must be in writing to be enforceable.  Here we examine exactly what this means.

In general, there are three types of agreements that one might find themselves involved with, in which they must make the determination regarding whether the contract can be performed within one year.  We examine them each in turn below by way of examples.

Continue reading “How Do I Know If My Agreement Can Be Performed Within One Year?” »

Part I in a Series about the Statute of Frauds

Let’s shake on it!!  While you may feel pride and it may give you warm fuzzies to feel like your handshake is your bond and to believe that the other party to your contract completely trusts you, you may not feel this way once the contract goes south, the parties ultimately have a different understanding of the terms of the contract or one of the parties fails to actually perform his obligations under the contract.

The most important reason to put a contract in writing is so that both parties to the contract can look at the specific terms and say, “Yes, this is what I understand the agreement between us to be.”  Think how many times you have said something to your spouse, the person who knows you better than anyone, only to find that their interpretation of what you just said was completely different from what you intended.

When contracts are not in writing, parties often find, and often times too late, that they were not of the same mind set when it came to the actual terms of an oral agreement.  There are numerous other reasons that contracts should be in writing — you can guess a few of them — however, this article covers agreements that MUST be in writing in order to be enforceable in court.

This requirement for a written contract is referred to as the “Statute of Frauds.”

Continue reading “Does My Contract Need To Be in Writing?” »