The BUSKLAW Newsletter

Forming (or not forming) a contract in the digital age can be a tricky business. Millennials in particular are more accustomed to negotiating deals not by exchanging offers, counteroffers, and acceptances as email attachments requiring signatures, but by emails, text messages, and social media exchanges. And each of these channels can easily include emojis :  those funny little pictographs that are fast becoming ubiquitous in our digital lives.   But this casual approach can lead to confusion in contract negotiations. Before we discuss how, let's review basic legal principles of forming a contract under Michigan (and many other jurisdictions') law:  Verbal Contracts . Verbal contracts are generally enforceable if their subject matter isn't real estate, or goods priced at $1,000 or more. (Note to my IT clients: software programs are not "goods," so beware informal statements that can be construed to form a license agreement.) But there are problems of provin