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Verbal offer is worth the paper it's written on.

Depends on the party making the offer.

A verbal agreement from an honest businessperson can be as good as gold. And when someone reneges on a verbal agreement it's generally a clue that they wouldn't be great to work with.

But this is surprising from Google. Most likely a one-off mistake

A verbal agreement from an honest businessperson can be as good as gold.

I agree with you there, but I would never trust my ability to judge whether a businessperson is honest enough to take that leap of faith. Also, Google is notorious for making unforced errors in their hiring process.

Not in America. If you ever trust a US businessman without a signed paper you'll get badly screwed as soon as situation changes slightly or gets advised by his lawyer and/or accountant.

Is it? I was given to understated that, legally, contracts can be binding with only verbal agreement.

A law is worth its enforcement; otherwise it's just a nice idea.

They are (with caveats), the problem is proving it.

Two witnesses agreeing each other are usual standard for verbal contract disputes.

In the US, even a written job offer is generally not considered to be a binding contract.

https://www.tonybeshara.com/tips/accepting-an-offer-new-empl...

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