DoNotPay: The World’s First Robot Lawyer

In legal trouble? Want to contest a parking ticket? Need to sue that sonuva-whaaat? Can’t afford a lawyer? Better Call Saul? Nah, he’s not real. Instead, you should check out DoNotPay, the world’s first robot lawyer. 

RoboJurist, The Lawyernator, Optimus Habeus Corpus: these are names founder Justin Browder could have used in his creation of DoNotPay. Alas, that’s not the case. 

While it’s not literally a robot, DoNotPay is a legal services chatbot that offers a range of legal services. Anything from consumer protection to immigration status is within DoNotPay’s capabilities. DoNotPay is a downloadable legal subscription service that uses artificial intelligence in a clever manner. 

A Little Lawyer in Your Pocket

Essentially, DoNotPay helps users draft legal letters. Let’s say you have a parking ticket you want to contest. You tell the chatbot your problem and the AI provides the correct legal language to use. Think of it like legal Mad Libs. You write your side of the story, and DoNotPay edits it to make it sound like it came from the desk of Saul Goodman. 

If you were the kind of person to turn to your lawyer friend for free legal advice: no more. DoNotPay allows the common layperson to handle their own legal battles with the help of a downloadable app. The app is so easy to use that it boasts that users can, “fight corporations, beat bureaucracy, and sue anyone at the press of a button.”

Because our society isn’t litigious enough, right? 

While DoNotPay has won an award from the American Bar Association for increasing legal access, there have been mixed reviews. 

DoNotPay is useful in that it helps users avoid legal roadblocks that usually make pursuing action costly, complicated, or not worth the effort. For people who don’t know what to do when sent a threatening legal document, now you have an artificial lawyer in your pocket. In that regard, DoNotPay is very useful.

When the Little Guy Sues the Big Guy

If DoNotPay sounds familiar, that may be because of its role in the Equifax debacle. For regular folk, being able to get justice from a big company without having to pay expensive lawyer fees is a big deal. 

Lawyers must be a little peeved to see some know-it-all robot step into their territory, no? 

Well, you’d think that…

AI in Law Firms Today

Sally Hobson, a barrister at the London-based law firm The 36 Group, used AI in a murder trial. The complicated case required analyzing over 10,000 documents. Hobson used a software, developed by Luminance, that accomplished the task four weeks faster than it would have taken humans. 

“Historically you had a lot of [document checking] technologies that were no better than keyword searches, like hitting Control-F on your laptop,” says Eleanor Weaver, chief executive of Luminance. 

So, lawyers using an AI is not exactly unheard of. The technology is capable of scanning documents far quicker than any human can, and is capable of learning incredibly quickly. While that terrifies conspiracy theorists and excites science fiction writers, AI in the legal world is a very useful tool. 

Lawyer’s Bark Worse Than Their Bite

If you’re aware of the term “legalese,” you’re well aware how complicated and confusing legal phrases can be. Attack dog lawyers count on people being intimidated by legalese so that they can get what they want. A scary-sounding letter from a lawyer can bully someone into submission. 

DoNotPay is offering help to the people who can’t afford a lawyer. With their AI, DoNotPay is able to help someone who didn’t spend three years in law school take charge of their own legal battles. 

Next time you want to contest a parking ticket, or if you want to take on a big company that has wronged you, you might want to download DoNotPay.