A while back I wrote a short piece about whether oral or verbal contracts are legally enforceable and have since been garnering lots of interesting comments and stories. Here's one that came in this week that should be a good warning for people who don't write things down on paper when they complete financial transactions...

My ex-landlord's wife sold me a car. We had an oral agreement that I would pay $1400 for it. She signed the title over to me when I put $400 down on it. I in return sold the car to someone else, I have since still been paying on that last $1000, I have it down to $435. I'm a single mom who makes only $9.00 and hour and I get paid twice a month. I pay when I have extra money. He calls me constantly harassing me for a payment and now is threatening to take me to court..Will this stand? I know I owe him $435 and am paying it a little at a time. We had an oral agreement and no time limit, Also my ex-husband said he would help me pay for it and he has not. What can I do?

I constantly get into fights with my suppliers because they'll tell me one thing on the phone when I'm placing an order and then bill me at a different rate, claiming that they have no memory of the deal they offered me. I am now thinking that if I just record those phone calls, I'll have a perfect recourse to ensure that they are true to their word, but I'm wondering, is it legal to record phone calls without telling the other party?