I was engaged to be married and we had verbally talked with a bartender three days before wedding. No contracts were signed. Wedding is cancelled the day before. Bartender is now calling me and saying she has a $50 cancellation fee. My ex-fiance refused to give her anything and said he did not talk with her I did. She claims she will take me to small claims court if she does not receive her $50 by next Friday. Are verbal agreements upheld in small claims court? She has nothing but one phone call prior to the cancellation.

The court can uphold a verbal agreement if it is satisfied that such an agreement existed. It'll be up to the bartender to convince the judge that this was so. They'll say it did, you'll say it didn't (or that the agreement was between the bartender and your fiance and you were out of the loop), then the judge will shake his or her finger at the complainant and say "never ever ever make a deal without putting it in writing, you won't stay in business long doing things this way" (because judges love to make such predictions).

Whether or not any award will be made depends on whether the judge feels there was an agreement or not.
The bartender certainly has the burden to PROVE in this case.

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http://www.aardvarc.org

I agree with aardvarc on this one. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.