Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Canada

Re: Partnerships and Good Will

You can make a verbal contract unless the subject matter of the contract is land or an interest in land. There is no requirement at law for other contracts to be in writing. The essence of a contract is that an agreement is made and some consideration passes from one to the other. Consideration is money or something else of value. The value does not need to be substantial. Mutual promises can be valuable consideration. Do you have any emails, notes or any personal memos or diary entries or daytimer notes, markings on your calendar or anything such as a canceled cheque, a paid invoice --something to support your claim. Another person who has first hand knowledge of the arrangement(or any part of it) would be helpful as a witness. You can prove a contract on verbal testimony but you need to prove your loss, which usually means quantifying the amount of loss in dollars and having some way to support your claim. A note on a napkin can do it if the note was made at the time the agreement was entered into ( Obviously not after the fact to support your position). The key to the Court accepting verbal submissions is one of credibility----how believable is she ? and you?. This will be the whole essence of the process in Court.