Law firm sues 'robot lawyer' DoNotPay because it 'does not have a law degree'

DoNotPay, which calls itself "the world's first robot lawyer," has been charged with legal malpractice as it does not have a law degree, reports Business Insider.

It is up against a proposed class action lawsuit that was filed by the Chicago law firm Edelson on 3 March and made public on the Superior Court of the State of California of the County of San Francisco website on Thursday.

The complaint argues: "Unfortunately for its customers, DoNotPay is not actually a robot, a lawyer, nor a law firm. DoNotPay does not have a law degree, is not barred in any jurisdiction, and is not supervised by any lawyer."

The firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jonathan Faridian, who claimed to have used DoNotPay to prepare demand letters, a small claims court filing, and a complaint of job discrimination.

Faridian said in his complaint that he had acquired legal documents "from a lawyer that was able to deliver them," but had instead received "substandard" results, adds the Insider report.

DoNotPay argues that it can assist users with a variety of legal services without the need to hire a lawyer by utilising artificial intelligence.

It was founded in 2015 as an app to help customers fight parking tickets, but has since expanded its services.

DoNotPay's website claims that it can help customers fight corporations, beat bureaucracy, find hidden money, and "sue anyone."

DoNotPay told Insider: "DoNotPay respectfully denies the false allegations." It added: "We will defend ourselves vigorously."

CEO of DoNotPay, Joshua Browder, declared on Twitter that the claims had "no merit" and pledged to fight the lawsuit.

He said, DoNotPay was "not going to be bullied by America's richest class action lawyer" in a reference to Edelson founder Jay Edelson. 

DoNotPay, according to Browder, was founded in 2015 to compete with lawyers like Edelson.

"Time and time again the only people that win are the lawyers. So I wanted to do something about it, building the DoNotPay robot lawyer to empower consumers to take on corporations on their own," he said.

Jay Edelson told Insider: "We understood when we filed suit that Josh and DoNotPay would try to distract from their misconduct in any way possible. They attacked our client and now are attacking me."

DoNotPay grabbed attention earlier this year after Browder said it planned to use its artificial intelligence chatbot to advise a defendant facing traffic court. This plan was postponed after Browder said said he'd received "threats from State Bar prosecutors" and feared a jail sentence.