Article 5 of Mexico’s General Law of Commercial Companies states: “Las sociedades se constituirán ante fedatario público” (Companies shall be constituted before a public attester). The public attester is a notary or a commercial broker. Every later change to the company is recorded in the same way. The attester may not authorize the deed if the bylaws contravene the law. The simplified joint-stock company follows its own procedure.
A Sale by Public Deed
Under Article 2320 of Mexico’s Federal Civil Code, a property appraised at more than 365 times the daily minimum wage must be sold by escritura pública, a public deed. A private sale still binds the buyer and the seller. As the legal publication IDC Online explained in 2021, it has no effect against third parties. If the same property is sold twice, the sale registered first prevails.
Three Hundred Forty-One Days
In its Doing Business 2020 report, the World Bank measured how long it takes to enforce a commercial contract through the courts in Mexico. It took 341 days. The cost came to 33 percent of the value of the claim. On this measure, Mexico ranked 43rd of 190 economies.
Every Page Signed
In Mexico, the parties to a contract usually sign every page of it. In 2020, the legal publication IDC Online explained that the law does not require this, and that a contract without signatures on every page is still valid. The practice “se ha convertido en una costumbre” (has become a custom), it wrote, to make sure that all the pages are the ones originally agreed.
The Promissory Note
In July 2026, the president of the commercial chamber of the High Court of Justice of Yucatán said that about 95 percent of the cases it hears involve pagarés, promissory notes. He added that this does not mean they all involve fraud. The note is one of the most common ways to formalize a debt between private persons and companies.
A pagaré can be enforced simply because it exists. In 2024, an opinion piece in Vanguardia noted that in more than 40 percent of the pagaré cases heard in the commercial courts of Coahuila, the debtor claims that the document was altered.
Agreed by Word
Apalabrar, from palabra, word, is to agree on something by word of mouth. The Diccionario del español de México of El Colegio de México defines it as to commit to something or to contract it verbally. One of its examples: “Antes de firmar contrato se apalabraron sobre el precio del terreno” (Before signing a contract, they agreed by word on the price of the land).
De palabra, “by word,” the dictionary explains, means said but not set down in writing: prometer de palabra, to promise by word, resolver un asunto sólo de palabra, to settle a matter only by word. A person who is de palabra is “leal, honrado y cumplido” (loyal, honest and reliable).
Work Without a Written Contract
Articles 24 and 25 of Mexico’s Federal Labor Law require working conditions to be set down in writing. Article 26 states: “La falta del escrito a que se refieren los artículos 24 y 25 no priva al trabajador de los derechos que deriven de las normas de trabajo y de los servicios prestados, pues se imputará al patrón la falta de esa formalidad.”
In other words, a worker without the written document keeps all rights, and the missing paper counts against the employer.
According to INEGI’s employment survey, as reported by the Mexico Solidarity Project, 41.4 percent of subordinate workers had no written contract in February 2026.
Paper Talks
Papelito habla, “a little paper talks.” A 2025 lesson for the second year of secondary school, in the Nueva Escuela Mexicana materials of the Ministry of Public Education, takes the saying as its title.
Among its examples are spoken promises such as “¡Te doy mi palabra!” (I give you my word!). It explains that the value of such words has moved to the documents of everyday life, such as receipts and contracts.