Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Kansas

Re: Contracts

You have not given enough information. Thefore, the answer to your question is: Maybe.

There are different kinds of agreements (contracts) and they are not prone to an accurate generalizations as you have requested.

All contracts are expected to be performed as expected. If everyone does as everyone expected after a verbal agreement, than Yes, a verbal contract is as good as if they had written it down, signed it and gotten three different notaries to verify their signatures.

Perhaps what you meant was "is a verbal agreement as enforceable as a written one, where one of of the parties did not do as the other expected under the agreement?" That is where it gets sticky. Some contracts are only enforceable if there is a writing describing the essential terms of teh agreement and signed by the party who is accused of being in breach. Those include, among others, sales of land, purchases for values over certain dollar amounts, agreemtns where one party could not perform their part in less than a year after teh agreement is made, etc. These are called "statute-of-frauds" issues, and have been the subject of legislation, going back to before we were the USA.

Absent a statutory requirement for a writing, there are still good reasons to get the agreement in writing somewhere. It may prevent misunderstandings, and may protect an innocent person, where the other has taken them to court to enforce an oral agreement that does not match their recollection.

If you were to provide more information about the type of "contract" to which you refer, perhaps I, or another attorney, could give you a more definite answer.

Good Luck,

Tony Smith