There were no written agreements and scant evidence the family agreed to pay him.

FORBES: Tax Lawyer Son's Help, Priceless?

Normally, the form prevails over substance because the written agreements characterize the transaction as a loan and courts and arbitrators tend to sustain that.

FORBES: Employee Loses But Sort Of Wins Twilight Zone Promissory Note Arbitration Against Citigroup And Morgan Stanley

Barter agreements can be written and quantified or they can remain loose, with a verbal agreement and a handshake.

FORBES: Bartering for Survival - Have I Got A Deal for You

Mori's Yoshimitsu Isoi says his firm found it hard to put everything into a written contract in China, rather than relying on verbal agreements as in Japan.

ECONOMIST: Japanese companies in China

What about requiring every third-party service provider to protect personal customer data through encryption, tokenization or another advanced security technology, through clauses written into and enforced as part of standard service level agreements?

FORBES: The Epsilon Hack Attack: Time For "SOX For Consumers"?

Whereas earlier copyright law, including international agreements like the 1886 Berne Convention, had been written to regulate the circulation of printed materials, the Rome Convention responded to the new circumstance of ideas variously represented in easily reproduced units by covering performers and producers of recordings under copyright.

UNESCO: UK National Commission for UNESCO - UNESCO Conventions, Recommendations & Declarations in the UK

And so many Americans get their credit card agreements and don't understand the fine print that's written in a way precisely so that they cannot understand it, and then find out that their rates double overnight.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

A. Traditionally, business in China is bound by handshakes and verbal agreements. (In the U.S., however, ) Chinese companies must provide written documentation of issues in order to comply with the law, which Chinese businessmen may find too rigid compared to their own traditional and less formal methods of doing business.

FORBES: Seven Dos And Don'ts For Chinese Investors In The U.S.