Year-End Legal Checklist for Health and Wellness Practitioners

December is a natural pause in the year. Bookings slow down, your schedule eases a little, and you finally get breathing space. It is the perfect moment to tidy up the legal side of your practice before the new year begins.

You do not need a long, complicated list. A simple review can protect your practice, reduce stress, and help you step into next year feeling steady and organised.

Below is a clear checklist to help you wrap up the year with ease.

1. Check your key client documents

Your client documents set expectations, protect your boundaries, and reduce misunderstandings. If your services, pricing, or systems changed at any point this year, take a moment to refresh these documents.

Terms of Sale

Make sure your payment terms, refund policy, cancellations, and rescheduling rules reflect how your practice currently works. If you offer payment plans, check that your instalment wording is clear and matches your bookkeeping and automations.

If you need a solid, ready to go option, the Legally Healthy Terms of Sale Template is written specifically for health and wellness practitioners and covers the common issues that come up with payments, refunds, and cancellations. It also contains the correct wording you need to comply with Australian Consumer Law. 

Privacy Policy

Australian privacy law expects you to tell clients how their information is collected, stored, and used. If you added new forms, quizzes, freebies, or email marketing tools this year, your policy may need a refresh.

The Legally Healthy Privacy Policy Template is a simple way to stay aligned with local privacy requirements.

Website Terms of Use

This sets the rules for people who visit your website. It protects your content, explains what visitors can and cannot do, and reduces risk. The Legally Healthy Website Terms of Use Template covers all of this in clear language.

Informed Consent

As a health practitioner you are legally required to obtain your client’s informed consent to treat before commencing treatment. This involves explaining the potential risks, benefits and alternatives. Informed consent is an ongoing obligation and needs to be documented.

We’ve made the documenting part easy with our Legally Healthy Informed Consent and Client Agreement Template. It also contains and optional add-on consent to use AI notetaking software with your client.

If you updated your services this year, take time to update these important legal documents so they match your current practice. Don’t have any up to date legal documents in place yet? Check out our Get Started Bundle.

2. Review your disclaimers

Disclaimers protect your boundaries and help clients understand the purpose of your content. They are especially helpful if you share education, supplements, recipes, general tips, or any AI assisted material.

Look over your:

• Email Disclaimer
  
• Social Media Disclaimer
  
• Article or Blog Disclaimer
  
• Program or Course Disclaimer
  
• Any notes about AI assisted content
  

If you are not sure what wording to use, the Legally Healthy Content and AI Legal Pack includes three simple templates that cover the essentials for digital content. It contains an AI Use Policy for Small Business, an Article and Blog Disclaimer, and an Email Disclaimer. Everything is written in plain English for Australian health and wellness practitioners, and each document is fully customisable.

3. Renew and check your insurance

Insurance is easy to forget, but it is one of the most important parts of your legal foundation.

Review your:

• Professional Indemnity
  
• Public Liability
  
• Product liability (for supplements or physical goods)

Check that your insurer knows about any new services you introduced this year, such as testing, group programs, workshops, online clinics, or retreats. If your business structure or offerings changed or you brought on support staff, update your insurer so your cover stays valid. Also consider additional policies you might need including Cyber Insurance. If you’re unsure, have a chat to an insurance broker who can recommend appropriate policies to cover your business operations. 

4. Review your website and booking systems

Your website is often the first place clients go to learn about your services, so it is worth keeping everything up to date. Spend a few minutes checking for:

• Broken links
  
• Outdated services or pricing
  
• Old programs you no longer run
  
• Missing disclaimers
  
• Missing legal documents
  
• Outdated freebies, forms, or pop ups
  

If you use pop ups, landing pages, or online booking forms, make sure the consent wording clearly connects back to your Privacy Policy. This helps you stay transparent about how you collect and use client information.

If you realise your website is missing key legal documents, you have two helpful options:

Mini Website Template Bundle – Great if you only need the essentials. It includes a Privacy Policy and Website Terms of Use written in plain English for Australian businesses.

Full Website Template Bundle – Ideal if you sell services or programs online, as it includes Privacy Policy, Website Terms of Use, and Terms of Sale for complete coverage.

Both are easy to customise and written for Australian health and wellness practitioners.

 

5. Review your record keeping

Good record keeping is essential for every health practitioner. December is a great time to clean up digital files and make sure everything is stored securely.

Check your:

• Client notes
  
• Consent forms
  
• Test results
  
• Supplement orders
  
• Financial records
  
• Old email threads or voice notes containing clinical details
  

Make sure everything is backed up, password protected, and stored in a secure system that matches your obligations.

6. Check your business structure and registrations

A quick review prevents headaches later.

Confirm:

• ABN details
  
• GST registration
  
• Business name renewal dates
• Domain name registrations
  
• Any updates needed after hiring contractors or admin support
  

If your business grew this year, you might find it helpful to review your structure with your accountant in the new year.

7. Review your contractor documents

If you hired a VA, admin assistant, content creator, or receptionist this year, make sure you have a written agreement in place.

You will need:

• A Contractor Agreement or Employment Agreement
  
• Confidentiality clauses
  
• A clear scope of work
  
• Clear payment terms
  
• A simple process for renewing or ending the arrangement
  

If you need support with this, the Legally Healthy templates make it easy.

The Independent Contractor Agreement Template is written in plain English for Australian businesses and is ideal if your support person is self employed. It is fully customisable and covers all the key terms you need.

If your support person is an employee, the Employment Agreement Template gives you a clear, legally sound contract that covers full time, part time, or casual staff, including confidentiality and intellectual property protection.

If you hire a Virtual Assistant locally or overseas, use our Virtual Assistant Template.

These templates are designed to help small health practices stay protected without the stress.

 

8. Check your content and advertising compliance

If you are covered by AHPRA, review your content for compliance with the National Law advertising rules.

If you are non AHPRA, check applicable state codes of conduct, governing body codes, association rules and consumer/ fair trading laws.

Practitioners selling or promoting therapeutic goods, also need to ensure they comply with the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. 

Look over:

• Website copy
  
• Program descriptions
  
• Social media posts
  
• Testimonials
  
• Emails
  
• Landing pages
  
• Lead magnets
  

Check for any wording that could sound like personal health advice when it is meant to be general education.

If you struggle with this, the Legally Healthy Article and Blog Disclaimer is a simple add on that helps protect your content.

9. Update your systems and processes

Think about what caused the most friction this year.

• Did clients keep missing appointment reminders?
• Did late payments pile up?
• Did your intake form feel clunky?
• Did your admin take too much time?
• Did refunds or cancellations become stressful?
• Did you procrastinate sending out emails because you hate your email marketing platform4? 

This is your chance to fine tune your systems so next year feels lighter.

If payment issues were a problem, updating your Terms of Sale can make a huge difference.

A couple of systems and processes I use in my own businesses: 

FloDesk – I LOVE this email marketing system as it has beautiful templates and it easy to use.  I’ve used all the other platforms and this was the first one I actually enjoyed using. If you use my link to sign up before 29 November 2025, you can get their unlimited plan (unlimited contacts and emails for one flat rate. You’ll also get 50% off your first year)

ThriveCart – I use the Pro+ version for both businesses – in Legally Healthy as a sale funnel – to promote templates, add order bumps and upsells. For Real Functional Health I use it for consults, functional tests, packages, and to house my digital products (courses etc). 

 

10. Set your legal goals for the new year

Once you finish the checklist, choose a few simple legal goals that will help you move forward with confidence.

Examples:

• Update your Privacy Policy
  
• Add new disclaimers across your content
  
• Introduce an AI Use Policy
  
• Bring in a proper Contractor Agreement
  
• Get your documents into one place for easy access
  

If you are just starting this process, the Legally Healthy Get Started Bundle gives you all your core documents in one place and is a very simple way to get your foundations sorted.

Don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter for 10% off your first template.

 

A supportive way to finish the year

A small amount of legal tidying now can save you time, money, and overwhelm later. You do not need to do everything at once. Move through the checklist at a steady pace and update what matters most to your practice.

All Legally Healthy templates are lawyer drafted, written specifically for Australian health and wellness practitioners, and created to make compliance easier for small practices.

If you want help choosing the right documents or want guidance on where to start, feel free to book a call here.