I feel verbal agreement is the better way and trustworthy too. We are now in the world were even a conversation between a professor and students are being documented if it is via mail. For discussing about something personal life and relationships it is far better to go with oral agreements. But in case of business were dollars will be invested it is better to follow what the paper says. Oral contracts are extremely difficult to defend in court as it is difficult to show all the aspects of a legal contract; such as offer & acceptance, consideration, and full capacity of the agreement. In a written legal agreement these are typically clearly stated and can be much more easily defended in court. As would stated above, a written legal contract is typically much more useful than an oral agreement.