World's first robot lawyer gets sued for practicing law without a law degree
DoNotPay Inc.'s "world's first robot lawyer" is being sued by one of its clients for practicing law without a license.
According to a Reuters report, customer Jonathan Faridian used the app to “draft demand letters and small claims court filing, and LLC operating agreements” believing that it works well like a competent attorney. Instead, he was given “substandard and poorly done” papers.
He then filed the lawsuit through Chicago-based law firm Edelson PC, saying that the chatbot is offering its services illegally as it is "not actually a robot, a lawyer, nor a law firm," as stated in their proposed class action submitted on March 3.
Joshua Browder, founder of the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company, responded to the lawsuit on his personal Twitter account, sharing the context of the case.
“Bad news! Jay Edelson, America's richest class action lawyer, is suing my startup @DoNotPay in California, “ he wrote. “Mr Edelson, who has made billions suing companies, is attacking us for 'unauthorized practice of law' and seeking a court order ending any A.I product.” he added.
Bad news! Jay Edelson, America's richest class action lawyer, is suing my startup @DoNotPay in California. Mr Edelson, who has made billions suing companies, is attacking us for "unauthorized practice of law" and seeking a court order ending any A.I product.
— Joshua Browder (@jbrowder1) March 9, 2023
Here's my response: pic.twitter.com/6PvFVW65rB
“There are two problems, among others, with the case. First, the plaintiff has had dozens of successful consumer rights cases with DoNotPay, including canceling subscriptions, which he conveniently leaves out of the lawsuit,” he stressed in his tweet.
“Second, Edelson claims that the plaintiff, a person who supposedly has a J.D and is training to become a lawyer, was misled into thinking that DoNotPay is a real lawyer,” he continued, adding, “Seems a bit far fetched for someone who is qualified in the law.”
There are two problems, among others, with the case. First, the plaintiff has had dozens of successful consumer rights cases with DoNotPay, including canceling subscriptions, which he conveniently leaves out of the lawsuit. (6/10)
— Joshua Browder (@jbrowder1) March 9, 2023
He further shared that Edelson “inspired” him to create DoNotPay, stressing that the lawyer “symbolizes everything wrong with the law.”
Browder first created DoNotPay in 2015 to deal with parking tickets and has extended its offerings to dealing with other types of legal services.
On the other hand, Edelson refuted via email that Browder, along with his robot, is trying to "distract from their misconduct in any way possible" and that it already “scammed” its clients.
Prior to this, Browder planned to further expand their AI chatbot services to “advise a defendant in traffic court.” He noted that his company is willing to pay $1 million (almost P55 million) to those who would want to try on their chatbot for an argument before the U.S Supreme Court. But this wasn’t pursued after gaining backlash.