The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. (2 Cor. 3:6)

I quote the above Holy Bible quote as a reminder to those lawyers or lawyer-like who seem to think that only contracts or agreements or acts that are in writing have credence... The spirit of the law is to make life in communities more civil, to iron out problems...The law was not designed to obfuscate day to day dealings between people... In my case, I had 4 paintings on consignment at a friend's shop...We agreed on all the details, price, commission, rules & then we put out a price list & business cards with a studio website & various other promotional items like my c.v... I did not write out a contract nor a consignment agreement...It was not necessary...I did put FAR security tags on the back of each work in case something got stolen... When the shop got distrained by a lawyer-landlord, I was asked to prove that the works were mine...I told the lawyer the works were mine...The shop owner told the lawyer the works were mine...It went on, for about a month & a half, then I got my paintings back... The point is, everyone knew the paintings were mine & they were on consignment...There was no doubt... But, somehow , along the way, the lawyer had become dis-attached, disjointed, from the spirit of the law... There was no need for something to appear in writing...He knew, I knew, everyone knew...It was ridiculous... To stand on the ceremony of the letter, to force everyone's hand, was ridiculous... If you have an agreement with someone, & it is not in writing, you still have to honour the agreement. What have we come to if our word is not enough? To think that if I could not prove that my paintings belonged to me, in writing, that this man could steal them? That is a crime...Society's crime...Where is the honour? Not to mention, verbal agreements are always binding...But why did I have to remind this lawyer that? It was truly a disgusting experience... I was told by my neighbour that she did gardening work for a famous film producer, who, when she finished, shorted her the last cheque & said that she was screwed because she had not put the deal into writing... This film producer had obviously been burned by those who didn't accept his own verbal contracts & was taking it out on my neighbour the gardener... My last words are this- honour your verbal agreements...Don't make people hire lawyers...& don't insist everything be put into writing- someone has to save the trees...

II Cor. 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Sorry, here is the full quote, now attributed which I was referring to in my previous comment...