notmylawyer:

Time Commitment: Less than 3 minutes

I’m betting if you were to ask most people what a contract is, they would probably describe a written document with signatures at the bottom. That’s a fine image for most people, but not for you. You need to know better.

A contract is simply an agreement that the law will enforce. Said another way, a contract is a set of promises that the law will make you keep. And while there are some very important exceptions, those promises do not need to be written down to be legally enforceable. Generally you just need one person to offer an exchange of value and another person to accept that offer. That’s it.

Why does this matter? It matters because if you think a contract has to be a written document, you may be inclined to consider some of the informal deals people make everyday as something less than contracts. They aren’t. I’m talking about “gentleman’s agreements,” “handshake deals,” “pinky swears,” or whatever your preferred contractual foreplay may be. Don’t let the casualness fool you, an agreement sealed with a handshake or a kiss can be just as enforceable as one made in writing. Sure, without a writing it can be harder to prove the existence of an agreement, but it can still carry legal significance. Just something to keep in mind.

The original post is in much larger type. Go there.