Legal Question in Employment Law in Virginia

A verbal agreement is as enforceable as any written contract EXCEPT that you have to be able to PROVE that there was an agreement. (WIth a written agreement then paper contract provest his by itself).

The trouble comes if there are only 2 people who know about the oral contract. One person says yes, the other says no. That is a 50-50 tie. And the person bringing the claim loses a tie.

However, if there is ANY other evidence at all of an agreement, and the court believes it, then a verbal agreement is as binding as any written contract (except for certain things like the sale of land.)

Of coruse to answer your question, obviously NO an employer cannot refuse to pay you for 4 days of work.

The problem is proving it if the employer denies the facts.

Also, it can be difficult to prove what exactly the two sides AGREED TO.

As an alternative, tehre is also a legal doctrine called "quantum meruit" or "unjust enrichment."

Under this theory, you are entitled to get paid for your work even if there was no agreement or if there was a FAILED attempt to reach an agreement.

Even without an agreement, a person doing work is entitled to get paid IF you can PROVE that

a) The "client" (employer) KNEW that the services were being performed

b) The client either requested the services ahead of time or expressed appreciation / satisfacdtion / agreement with the services after the fact

c) The client (employer) knew or should have known that the person performing the services expected to get paid... it was not a gift. Under the circumstances was it clera that this was for work, NOT a gift?

In that case, the person performing the services can get paid the "FAIR MARKET VALUE" of the services -- NOT what was necessarily agreed to in terms of price (because tehre was no agreeenent).

Therefore you have to prove what the "fair market value" of the services are by bringing in witnesses of what is the normal price or wages for those services.

This might be more or less than what you expected or talked about with the employer. This is based on teh fair market value in your area. That is the usual price or wages on average.