Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Massachusetts

Re: Charging for missed appointment

Your questions turns on the issue of whether or not there is a valid contract between the doctor's office and you ( the patient), whereby you are obligated to pay the doctor $X amount for a missed appointment. The answer is fact specific and essentially depends upon whether there was "mutual assent" between you and the doctor. As a practical matter, usually the patient is notified of a charge for a missed appointment by some type of conspicuous posting in the doctor's office, usually by the receptionist's window.Whether this constitutes "mutual assent" is a question of fact. In answer to your specific question, under Massachusetts law, contracts do not have to be in writing to have a legally binding effect. The caveat to that is found under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 259, Section 1, which states that certain contracts must be in writing ( eg; to charge an executor upon a promise, to charge a person to answer for the debt of another, promises in consideration of marriage, to convey an interest in land, promises which cannot be performed within one year from the making. I would try to negotiate with the doctor, and, if he is unreasonable, find another doctor, unless you can't replace he/she.