Technology

DoNotPay Adds 1,000 Legal Bots, Plus Service For Others To Create Their Own

The DoNotPay chatbot, which helps people fight parking tickets, is just the beginning.

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An army of robot lawyers, waiting to be released.

Two years ago, when Joshua Browder, then just 18 years old, launched his DoNotPay chatbot to help people fight parking tickets, it was heralded as the world’s first robot lawyer. Since then, the number of law-related chatbots has grown steadily, as I recounted in a recent column. But last week, Browder made two announcements that could result in many more people using bots for many more legal problems.

Early last week, Browder announced that he was pushing out 1,000 new bots within DoNotPay to help people in the U.S. and UK complete a wide range of transactional legal forms. Then, on Friday, he announced that he is opening his platform so that anyone can create a legal bot for free, with no technical knowledge.

1,000 New Bots

Browder claimed notable success with DoNotPay, reporting that users won 160,000 out of 250,000 cases. He soon began expanding into other areas of law, first adding legal help for the homeless and then help for refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. and Canada.

But as he slowly released bots one by one, he became concerned that users would not know which legal problems DoNotPay would work for and which it would not. So he decided that the best way to move the site forward would be to expand into a huge number of areas at once.

Now, a user simply asks a legal question or describes a legal problem and the site directs the person to the correct bot. It identifies a user’s location to provide jurisdiction-specific remedies. The bot asks the user a series of questions and then generates a letter or other document for the user to send or file.

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Among the issues it now helps with: challenging a landlord’s refusal to return a security deposit, complaining about an unsafe apartment, fighting fraudulent charges on a credit card, complaining about workplace discrimination, and canceling a free trial.

When DoNotPay does not have an answer to a user’s question, it invites the user to email the DoNotPay staff. Browder and three paralegals answer every inquiry, trying to direct the user to a resource that can help. “We never say we can’t help people,” Browder told me.

As of this writing, DoNotPay still did not identify which types of legal problems it could help with and which it couldn’t. But Browder told me that he was working on an addition to the site that would provide that information.

Create Your Own Bot

Just a few days after Browder announced this major expansion of DoNotPay, he announced that he would open his platform to allow anyone to create a law bot.

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“Starting today, any lawyer, activist, student or charity can create a both with no technical knowledge in minutes,” Browser wrote in a post Friday on Medium.

“You can use your bot to save money within your business, provide a better experience to clients, or improve access to justice,” he wrote. “Regardless, you will establish yourself as a leader in legal technology by having a cool bot link to share.”

Many lawyers already have forms or questionnaires they use to generate documents for their clients. These are good starting points for creating a bot. To get started, download and complete this form and then send it to automation@donotpay.co.uk. If you send it before 11:59 p.m. PST on Monday, July 24, you will receive your link within 24 hours, Browder said.

Some of the bots created through this service will be made part of DoNotPay, Browder told me last week. Before that would happen, his staff would verify that the bot is legally correct. The creator of a bot could opt out of having it included within DoNotPay.

Future Plans

Browder is working to develop bots to handle more complex legal matters. He believes that certain matters, such as divorce and bankruptcy, are susceptible to automation. If he can develop the bots to handle these processes properly, that will spearhead his ultimate goal of making the law free for everyone. And in the longer run, he hopes to develop an artificial intelligence assistant that can provide answers to very specific legal questions.

For the site to make money, Browder hopes eventually to find sponsors. But all of the site’s legal help, he promises, will be free forever. “You can hold me to that,” he said.

Earlier: This Week In Legal Tech: Everyone’s Talking About Chatbots

Robert Ambrogi Bob AmbrogiRobert Ambrogi is a Massachusetts lawyer and journalist who has been covering legal technology and the web for more than 20 years, primarily through his blog LawSites.com. Former editor-in-chief of several legal newspapers, he is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree. He can be reached by email at ambrogi@gmail.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@BobAmbrogi).

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