Individuals often encounter legal risks unknowingly.   Legal responsibilities may be unknown and hence unmet.  The legal implications of certain actions may not be fully appreciated and risks of liability may be created unknowingly.   Opportunities for strengthening ones legal position may also be unappreciated and lost. 

Individuals can avoid unnecessary legal problems systematically by evaluating their legal position or “legal health” through a legal checkup.  This sort of checkup is a counterpart to a  regular visit to one’s doctor for a medical checkup.  The legal checkup will entail a review of the legal problems and issues associated with persons in the position of the examined party.   Where possible legal problems are identified, further investigation and legal advice can be obtained as a follow up.   Even if nothing seems to be wrong with a party’s legal affairs, a legal checkup can be a useful means to identify previously hidden or unanticipated problems and to develop solutions for avoiding as many of the harmful consequences of these problems as possible.

The heart of the legal checkup is a series of questions about the present status of an individual’s legal affairs.  Specific legal topics such as whether the individual has a will are raised, as well as factual matters that are likely to affect legal rights such as the recent acquisition of property.  The answers to initial set of questions would lead to further follow up questions in areas that seem to involve weaknesses or potential dangers in a person’s legal situation. With the answers to these types of questions, an individual and an experienced lawyer can use preventive legal planning to achieve a careful and positive resolution of any outstanding legal problems or risks and chart improved actions to avoid similar problems and risks in the future.

In order to detect present or potential legal problems at the earliest possible stages, individuals will often need access to professional legal assistance.  To be fully effective, individuals who are trying to shape their activities through preventive legal methods should have regular access to advice about the legal significance of contemplated actions. 

Businesses are increasingly the targets of legal demands and liability risks.  To minimize the impact of these risks, companies should systematically assess their legal status and make corresponding provisions for actions that will reduce their risks of liability.  The primary tools for this type of preventive law practice in business settings are legal audits and compliance programs.

Legal audits are systematic evaluations of the legal status of a business at a given time. They typically provide a snapshot of a concerns liabilities, liability risks, and beneficial legal rights and relationships as of a given time.  This type of evaluation is undertaken by inventorying the legal constraints or liability standards applicable to a concern’s operations and then conducting a factual investigation of those operations to determine whether the identified constraints or standards suggest sources of liability. This same type of evaluation can also address the legal rights held by a concern in relation to key suppliers, stakeholders, or competitors.

Compliance programs are another important tool for preventing business liability.  A compliance program is a group of management practices for a business or other organization which has been reasonably designed, implemented, and enforced so that it generally will be effective in preventing liability.  Such a program will generally entail both prospective and retrospective components.  The prospective portions will be aimed at identifying activities by employees and other organizational agents that will avoid liability and at ensuring that, through job directions, training, and employee monitoring, these liability-preventing actions are undertaken.  The retrospective portions of a compliance program will usually be aimed at detecting illegal actions or activities raising substantial risks of liability and at stopping those activities as soon as possible.  These retrospective studies can also provide a useful information base for formulating compensatory remedies for injured parties and business reforms to better prevent the same type of misconduct in the future.