jQuery dialog popup

This HTML is fine:

<a href="#" id="contactUs">Contact Us</a>                   
<div id="dialog" title="Contact form">
  <p>appear now</p>
</div>

You need to initialize the Dialog (not sure if you are doing this):

$(function() {
  // this initializes the dialog (and uses some common options that I do)
  $("#dialog").dialog({
    autoOpen : false, modal : true, show : "blind", hide : "blind"
  });

  // next add the onclick handler
  $("#contactUs").click(function() {
    $("#dialog").dialog("open");
    return false;
  });
});