What are some guidelines for when it is not necessary to check for a null?
A lot of the inherited code I\'ve been working on as of late has null-checks
NULL checking in general is evil as it's add a small negative token to the code testability. With NULL checks everywhere you can't use "pass null" technique and it will hit you when unit testing. It's better to have unit test for the method than null check.
Check out decent presentation on that issue and unit testing in general by Misko Hevery at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEhu57pih5w&feature=channel